


Embers

by diredreamings



Series: Faith on Fire [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alive Vernon Boyd & Erica Reyes, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, I like ocs okay?, I take joy in throwing my readers off cliffs, Magical Stiles Stilinski, Not even a little sorry, Pack Dynamics, TW Season 2, fae!Stiles, i'm sure I'll think of more eventually, magical Stilinskis, mythological beasties
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-01
Updated: 2015-04-15
Packaged: 2018-02-23 07:53:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 29
Words: 77,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2540150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/diredreamings/pseuds/diredreamings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As if his life wasn't screwy enough, what with the werewolves and all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm a bad, bad person. I can't help it. Ridiculously massive WIPs are sort of my thing. If that bothers you...just walk away. Oh and just FYI I suggest checking out the series info for this thing in order to clear up any potential confusion. Just...trust me on this one.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, headbutting the giant lizard wasn't his best plan but hey, you work with what you've got.

Its times like this, Stiles thinks as he peels off his shirt, sticky with drying Kanima vomit (Which, really?! Come on.), and tosses it on the bathroom floor, that he really regrets being his father’s son. Okay, no. That is a lie. What he really regrets is that stupid in the face of danger is apparently a hereditary issue. He checks his phone again.

I’m fine. Couple of stitches. On late shift see you in the morning.

As if it wasn’t bad enough that Stiles was itchy and sore and flaking dried goo all over the place. He would have to vacuum once he got this shit off. He father had to go and get himself attacked by a raccoon. A RACCOON. There had to be rules against this. His dad got off lucky, again. Chasing one of the K9 unit dogs away from a raccoon that had been feasting on the sheriff’s office’s trash was a bad enough. Trying to get the raccoon in his patrol car to take him to the preserve was a whole new level of stupid. He seriously questioned how his father became sheriff sometimes. Luckily, he was covered by the rabies shots from the squirrel attack three weeks ago.

This is why Stiles wasn’t allowed pets. Animals hated his father. A hatred the likes of which had never been seen before.

Stilinski men had a whole host of bad habits, this one in particular had led to not one but two accidental defenestrations and three separate and memorable incidents involving kitchen utensils. In the last two generations. He wasn’t even going to think about all of the eclectic ways men in the Stilinski family tree have found to, uh…retire. On the up side, they had a habit of hanging in there until well past reasonable age for a man to be walking tightropes or juggling knives or wrestling bears. God, that had been a fun family history report in the sixth grade. Who knew that the Stilinskis came from an impressive line of unofficial circus folk?

He winced as he scalded himself stepping into the shower, scrambling to adjust the temperature. And gross, he frowned at a patch of gunk on his arm, it was rehydrating. Stickier than ever, Stiles realized as  he yanked out some of his arm hair when the wash cloth adhered itself to his skin. The soap was doing nothing to help remove the issue. Was it vinegar for sticky stuff? Did they even have white vinegar in the house? They had balsamic, he knew, he had used it for a salad two nights ago. Probably not the same thing, right? Then again, acid is acid. He shook away the thought. He wasn’t a picture frame and this goop wasn’t the stubborn remains of a price tag. He never did get why they always put the tag on the glass. There is an entire back to the frame one that no one ever sees. And that has nothing to do with anything. Back to the issue at hand.

He had no clue why his best plan for escaping Jackson’s claws included head-butting him in the gut. It worked, he supposed, (if getting covered in paralysis puke could be considered working) but really, given the multiple werewolves that had been ready to pounce any second he probably didn’t have to jump directly to plan Z. Sure, the others had gotten a much needed laugh after Lyds got her pet iguana to calm his ass and they had a chance to fish him out of the yellowish-grey puddle of disgusting that he was lying frozen in, but getting the rest of this gunk off was going to suck.

Stiles really hoped that this wasn’t going to end up like Andrea Holland in the second grade when Stiles had tripped while blowing a bubble with the gum he wasn’t supposed to have and pop, right in the fancy, island braids she had been showing off after her family’s cruise. Maybe this was Karma. Shaving would suck. And itch. And really, could his hair get shorter? He groaned, scrubbing at a stubborn spot on his left hand, this was going nowhere.

Why him? That was what he really wanted to know. Why would crazy masterless Jackson grab him? The Kanima was understandably (sort of) freaked by the sudden lack of Matt the Psychotic Puppeteer. It felt threatened. Needed to fight back. Okay, great. Why Stiles? In a room chock full of bigger threats, why was he the one that ended up seconds away from a claw to the jugular.

Go for the weakest link, he had reasoned at first. It made sense. Except, stiles wasn’t the weakest link. He wasn’t even a link. He was, was… a blade of grass stuck to a link with saliva if anything. If someone breathed too hard on him he was going down. At least in the world of the supernatural. No, he thought, by human standards too, if lacrosse practice was anything to go by. If the Kanima was going to do anything besides wave a white flag at Derek, Stiles was sort of a poor choice as far as making a point.

He heard his phone go off on the counter, a text message. Scott probably. Maybe Mama McCall has white vinegar or better advice. Either would be appreciated.

Stiles turned off the water and stepped out onto the bathmat. He regrets that decision immediately, lifting his right foot and sighing heavily as the fuzzy navy thing came with it. Too late now. He scoots carefully forward still firmly attached to the rug. He checks his hands before grabbing his phone, clear.

Scott, as he suspected.

U gd?

No. He types, aggravated. You guys have white vinegar?

?

Vinegar. Takes away stickiness.

???

Stiles rolls his eyes. Mama McCall there?

Yeah

Ask for white vinegar.

K

Stiles sat tentatively on the edge of the tub checking three times to make sure he didn’t end up adhered onto the porcelain. He didn’t think his ass was still sticky but you know what? Not a risk he was going to take lightly. His phone buzzed again.

Told mom u gt glue on u doing a prjct. Gt vinegar, mineral oil, and nail polish rmovr. ETA 6

Stiles grinned. Sometimes Scottie was sort of helpless but he was always an awesome friend.

_Window unlocked. In Bathroom._

_K brt_

***

“More.” Stiles shoves the washcloth out past the shower curtain and into Scott’s hands.

“Dude, just how much of that stuff did you get on you?” He asked as he poured more vinegar onto the cloth. “You’re starting to smell like our eighth grade science project.”

“I won’t be eating anything with baking soda in it for a few days, precautionary measures, I’m sure you understand.” Stiles mutters sarcastically as he accepts the washcloth and runs it aggressively over his scalp. He was not going to school with a pillow stuck to his head tomorrow.

“God, this stuff smells so bad.” Scott whines though it was muffled by the towels he had pressed to his nose and mouth to try and block out the stench of vinegar. “Seriously, Stiles. So bad. My nose burns. I can taste it. Why do I have to be in here?”

“Yeah, well this isn’t exactly a picnic for me either, princess. Need I remind you of the time in eighth grade that you decided using hair dye on your leg hair was a brilliant plan? Who sat there with you for three hours or scrubbing? Hmm? ”

“Dude, who helped me pick the color?” Scott groused.

“And I stand by my choice. Mahogany would have worked well with your skin tone. Brought out your tan. And besides, I’m the one that figured out how to get it off before your mom got home.” Stiles felt his face contort as more of the vinegar dripped into his mouth. He ran a hand over his skin checking for missed sticky spots. Nothing major, he thought. “Better leave the room, wolf boy. I’m turning on the shower. That smell is about to get a whole lot more intense.” He twisted the dial and stood back, waiting for the water to warm.

“UGH. I’ll be upwind…I mean downstairs.” The door slammed behind him.

Stiles reaches out a hand to test the water. It comes back reddened. He glances at the temperature dial and contemplates risking further skin damage just to be really sure all of the remaining gunk was really gone (really he just wants to feel clean again). He sighs and turns it down to a slightly less third-degree burn inducing temperature. Who was he kidding? He had been soaked to the bone with Lizardman bile, he was never going to feel clean. He shudders and steps under the shower head letting the warm water sluice down his body.

His eyes fall shut. When had this become his life?  He grabs for the bottle of shower gel that he never really uses. The smell was too strong. It made Scott sneeze, hell, It made stiles sneeze too but it was the only thing that stood a chance against the stench of vinegar that had fully permeated his skin. He stays in the shower for half an hour scrubbing and re-scrubbing until all he could smell was Axe. He was going to smell like an eighth grader for a week. He turns off the water and grabs for a towel, wrapping it around his waist.

He licks some water off of his lips, absentmindedly. Vinegar and soap. He gags and wipes at his mouth frantically. Ew, ew, god, it was in his mouth. He rips another towel off the rack and start to rub his tongue with it roughly. “Freaking disgusting!” he growls.

He finished drying himself roughly and threw on his sweatpants. He gathered his clothes from earlier and sighed. Trashed. Completely. He liked that shirt too. He carried the small pile downstairs with him and tossed them in the trash careful to push them deep and to cover them with the cereal box they had finished that morning. Not that his father was likely to search the garbage but well, better safe than sorry. He pulled a bottle of water and some carrots from the fridge and went to join Scott in the living room.

Scott wrinkled his nose slightly as Stiles sat on the sofa beside him. “You still smell like a salad. Even more so now with those carrots.”

“Vegetables are good for you, dogboy.” Stiles grinned and crunched down, hard on one of the vegetables. “Seriously though, no better?”

“No, its fine now. Like I said, sort of smells like salad dressing does. A little stronger than most things but not unbearable.”

“Good, because if I scrubbed any harder I’d need skin grafts.” Stiles offered him a carrot receiving a strange look in response.

“Yeah, no.  Listen, now that you are ick free I have to go home so, I’ll see you in the morning.” Scott said as he got up.

“Alright. Need me to pick you up tomorrow?”

“No, I’ll see you at school.” Scott moved into the kitchen to gather his mother’s Stiles cleaning supplies. He sniffed casually at the air.

Stiles rolled his eyes and opened a cabinet to the right of the stove. He pulled out a container full of cookies that had arrived in the mail earlier from his aunt. He pulled out a smaller container and transferred some of them into it. “Make sure your mom gets most of these. I’ll bring some in tomorrow.”

“Aunt send another care package?” Scott accepted the container happily.

“Yeah, she doesn’t seem to get the concept of Dad’s diet.”

“I’m okay with that. She bakes a mean snickerdoodle.” Scott grinned as he stole a couple more from the still open container on the counter and shoved one in his mouth.

“She should, I mean it is her livelihood after all.”

“Dude, I have been to some bakeries with some seriously below standards baked goods. It isn’t exactly a prerequisite.” Scott laughed. His phone buzzed with a new text and he checked it. “It’s mom. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He was off like a shot. Stiles sighed and put the remaining cookies away. He should vacuum before he crashes. He spots Scott’s jacket hanging over the back of the couch and brings it up to his room placing it beside his backpack so he would not forget it tomorrow.

He sits down at his desk and wakes up his laptop, still open to his family email account. Three new messages. Shit. He winces and clicks open the oldest of the three.

**Stiles,**

**Think of it like a psychological disorder. A Kanima is a Kanima because of mental imbalance and emotional instability. They require a master to anchor them. The lore goes different ways but for the most part consensus is that there is no cure, only treatment. A relationship that is fully mutual between master and kanima seems to be the most used idea. Ari’s notes said that in some of the mythos the beast is temporarily sated by romantic love but that because such love is so turbulent they often return to their feral state worse than before. Mutual platonic love…Bromance all the way, man.**

**What is this paper about, anyways? I didn’t know you were taking classes in folklore. I didn’t know that was offered at your school. Is it about the Kanima itself or the folklore surrounding it in general? Are you having a hard time with the class? You seem to have a lot of questions about shifters. Let me know if you want to skype, maybe I can help you out more.**

**I want to read your paper when you are done. Good for you for choosing one of the lesser known creatures. Did those scans I sent you help? So little of what is online is trustworthy so I hope you use what I sent instead. Just, don’t tell Ari I went through his stuff. I don’t know why you didn’t ask him in the first place. He’s a lot better at this than I am.**

**Mom wants to know if her cookies got to you okay. She says that she made extra this time because Scott likes them so much. Oh, and Val wants to know if it is still okay for us to come out next month. It sucked that you and Uncle Tom couldn’t come to the reunion this year, we all missed you.**

**Talk to you soon,**

**Iggy**

Okay, Stiles thought, so that is actually really useful information. He pondered texting Derek immediately but realized that he would need a little more time to make his sudden understanding of how to fix the situation more plausible...and Derek's new number. Damn the man for not trusting him, then again it was probably for the best, he sort of doubted that the Alpha would be pleased if he knew that he had given up and phoned-a-friend. Though, really he should just be glad he didn’t go right to the source on this one. Iggy was a lot mellower about Stiles asking questions about his major than his older brother Ari was. Ari tended to ask questions right back, scary questions. Seriously, the sheriff’s department could use a couple of interrogators like him.

He flipped back to the inbox after jotting down a couple of notes on a pad of paper. Bromance, Alpha relationship?, NO LYDIA!!!

He clicked the next email absently, not even bothering to read who it was from. He glanced up at the screen…uh oh.

**What exactly are you doing that required my brother to enter my study? Somewhat faulty information or not, anything you need for a high school paper should be easily accessed on the internet or your local library, Stiles. What exactly do you plan to do with information from books that NO HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER HAS ACCESS TO? None. And, don’t even mention the fact that I looked up your school website and there are no classes that would ever have a paper on the things that you have been asking Iggy about.**

**Email me back, now. I can see that you are online. I want to talk to you. I don’t like where all these questions are going.**

**Ari**

Stiles swore and opened the last email.

**Stiles,**

**Ari is pissed. Iggy is hiding in the bakery. Look, just answer Ari’s email. He’s mostly just curious. I mean, you never really showed an interest in their passions before the past few months and, well, your dad has been kind of worried about you lately. I already checked with your dad, by the way, we will see you in a few weeks. I called him earlier while he was at the hospital. Raccoons, huh? I didn’t say anything about the Ari issue. Look, kiddo, you know Ari, you might want to sort this out before he shows up on your doorstep.**

**Talk soon,**

**Val**

Fuck. Fuck. Stiles was screwed. Ari was going to ask questions and there is literally one person in the entire world that he has not mastered the art of lying through his teeth too.  He debated waiting to respond until morning but realized that if he didn’t answer him tonight, Stiles was liable to be woken up by Ari ringing the doorbell in the morning. He opened up Ari’s email again and hit reply. It shouldn’t be that hard to lie in text, right?

Oh, boy.

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scott's escape planning skills could really use some brushing up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sick as a dog and a day late...sorry.

“Cookies?” Scott grinned crookedly at Stiles as he reached into the back seat of the jeep, through the window, for Stiles’ bag.  
“Seriously? I haven’t even put it in park. Don’t make me run you over.” Stiles turned off his car and reached behind him to grab Scott’s jacket and threw it at him, snatching back his bag in the meantime.  
“Cookies?” Allison asked her boyfriend curiously.  
“Stiles’ Aunt has a bakery and she always sends the best snickerdoodles and peanut butter cookies.” He smiled dopily at her. “She sent him more yesterday.”  
Stiles pulled out a bag of cookies and handed them to Scott, “Share with your girlfriend.”  
Scott smiled around a mouthful of cookies and pulled a peanut butter one out to give to Allison. She accepted the cookie with a laugh and took a bite as the three of them made their way into the school.  
“This is good.” She remarked as she distracted Scott with a kiss and pulled a couple more cookies out. “For later.”  
“Yeah. The bakery is pretty popular. I have some of the recipes that my aunt gave to my mom but I haven’t quite been able to make them taste the same.”  
“You make the best gingersnaps, though.” Scott slung an arm over Stiles shoulder. “Actually, you haven’t made any in a while.”  
“Oddly enough I have been a little on the busy side lately, Scottie.” Stiles opened his locker and began pulling out his books. He spotted Isaac making his way down the hall and slammed his locker shut. “Hey, sorry guys, I have to go do something. See you in class.” He followed the curly haired boy, waving over his shoulder at his best friend. Not that he was paying particular attention to Stiles with Allison around.  
“Isaac! Hey, Lahey!” He called rushing to catch up to the wolf. He was being ignored. Rude. “Hey, I know you can hear me.”  
Isaac stopped short and Stiles tripped over his feet as his skidded to a halt in front of not only the curly haired young man but Erica and Boyd as well. “Oh, hey guys.”  
Erica raised an eyebrow at him, sniffing the air and crinkling her nose. “Don’t you even start with me. I know, all right? Even I want to sneeze.”  
“Axe? Really?” She asked frowning and edging closer to her boyfriend.  
“The only thing I had that was strong enough to deaden the eu de Salad that was my vinegar bath last night.” Stiles rolled his eyes.  
“Ew.” She snickered. “Serves you right for getting thrown up on.”  
“Yes, that was definitely my plan all along.” He snapped. “I was going to give you guys some cookies but now…”  
“Cookies?” Isaac questioned.  
Oh, now the guys were paying attention. And…yep. There it was. The newly patented Issac Lahey pathetic puppy eyes. Guy could give Scott a run for his money. Stiles sighed and tugged another bag out of his backpack. “Peanut butter and Snickerdoodles. My Aunt sent me a ton of them and they don’t exactly fit my father’s diet. I need to get rid of a bunch of them before he finds out that she sent more than the three that I am allowing him to have.”  
“I, personally, am always glad to be of assistance.” Erica smirked and tugged the bag out of his hands, digging in happily. Boyd and Isaac managed to get a couple of cookies for themselves but the bag definitely stayed in Erica’s hands. Stiles glanced around checking for anyone lurking nearby before speaking.  
“Have you talked to Derek today? I mean, Jackson and Lydi…”  
“Me?”  
Stiles whirled around and nearly knocked into the Strawberry Blonde. “Lydia! I didn’t expect to see you at…”  
“Not much I can do right now, now is there? Hale is keeping an eye on Jax. Now, cookies.”  
“Allison?”  
“Of course.” She held her hand out expectantly. Stiles was suddenly very glad that he had thought to bring a couple of extra bags in case of greedy wolves. He handed her one of them. “I was informed that there would be gingersnaps soon.”  
“I…uh…” Scott, he growled internally, was going to pay. “Yeah, I’ll make some later this week.”  
“Be sure you do.” She tossed her hair over her shoulder lightly and pulled a cookie out of the bag. “Now, as far as I can tell, I haven’t missed anything in the Beastiary about fixing Jackson so you better have come up with something.”  
“Well, I found some stuff but we sort of need a plan and I need to do a little more research before we try to fix this.” He thought about the email that he had sent to Ari the night before. After being berated for over an hour on chat, Ari had agreed to look into a few things for Stiles in his books. Stiles had had to promise him that he would go to him first from now on, that he would make his mother’s famous pork roast when the brother’s came to stay, and possibly his first born child (The details were a bit blurry).  
Stiles knew that the older man was suspicious of his reasons. Ari had called him out on four different lies in their chat conversation alone, there was no hiding things from Rajmund Stininski. Which reminded him, “Where is Derek keeping Scales?”  
Lydia slapped the back of his head harshly. “Where do you think? Seriously though, I didn't even know Beacon Hills had a subway.” She frowned, put out that there were things that she did not know about in her hometown.  
Stiles shrugged “I’m not convinced that Derek didn't have the damn thing built just for effect.”  
***  
“There was no way to put them off?” Scott whined. He looked more like a deer in the headlights than the big bad Wolf, Stiles noted. Not that he ever looked like the big bad Wolf. An overgrown puppy, sure. Wolf, not so much. Hell, Erica was scarier… Before the bite. Well, maybe that was a bad example. After all, she hadn't changed as much as people thought.  
Stiles sighed heavily and allowed his head to fall to the desktop. “What am I supposed to do? Like I have any control over the situation. If it was just one of the other two… Ari, dude… Not even a nuclear strike could keep him away.”  
“I know, but…”  
“You want to try to convince him? I can give you his number. Hell, use my phone!” Stiles tossed the device over only for Scott to drop it on the desktop like it was a live snake. “Shit, don’t do that. I cannot afford to replace that thing again.”  
“Sorry.” Scott picked it up and handed it back to him. “I get it. They’re coming whether we like it or not.” He began shredding the paper in front of him. “We just have to come up with a plan to…”  
Stiles grab Scott’s hand, forcing it still, “That’s your chem homework, idiot.”  
Scott looked down, startled, his eyes widening. “Shit, Harris is going to kill me!”  
“Well, you won’t have to worry about Ari then.” Stiles grinned maliciously.  
“Do you think that would work?” Scott looked so earnest and Stiles couldn't help but laugh.  
“As if something as insignificant as death would stop a Stilinski.”  
“Damn.” He looked so forlorn. Stiles was drawing attention now. Even Danny was glancing back at them over his shoulder. Poor guy looked a little lonely without lizard breath. Scott seemed completely oblivious to the staring as he wrote something down in the notebook he pulled out.  
Allison walked in, glancing curiously over at them. Scott never even noticed, he was engrossed. Stiles conned himself enough to try to figure out what he was doing. “Dude, are those escape routes?”  
He didn't even pretend to deny it. “From everywhere I can think of that he could possibly catch me.”  
“You do remember that he taught us how to shimmy down that tree, right?” Stiles questioned.  
Scott scowled and crossed out the listings making. Stiles continued, rolling his eyes as he read some of the other items “Also, jumping from roof to roof isn't really a plausible way to avoid my cousins. That would kind of give away some pretty massive hints that you are hiding something. Super asthmatics are not known for their roof jumping prowess.”  
“Stop it with the criticism. I don’t see you jumping in with any ideas.”  
“Unlike some fools of a furrier nature I have embraced our fate.” He had, too. Hiding what was going on in Beacon Hills was going to fast become an exercise in futility with the terrible Trio in town. Ari would have Scottie singing like a canary in a couple of hours. Stiles himself probably wouldn't last much longer. “Hey, look on the bright side, I might get easier access to his collection once he knows.”  
“Stiles.”  
“What?”  
“He might never leave.”  
Stiles paused and then let his head fall to the desktop again as Harris walked in. “We are so screwed.”  
“Stilinski! If you still find yourself in need of a nap time I would be happy to write you a note for preschool.”  
“I’m good, thanks.”  
“All right. One for detention will have to do.” The rat bastard dropped piece of paper onto his desk. The man never even had to fill out a slip. Although, Stiles did kind of question the ethics behind carrying around pre-made detention slips for a particular student. He was almost surprised that the section on reasoning didn't simply say 'existence' rather than his usual 'disturbing the class'.  
“Class hasn't even started!” Stiles protested even as the Bell rang to signal the start of the class. Harris reached into his pocket as if to pull out another slip. “Shutting up.” Stiles did not have time for two detentions.  
“Yes, I’m sure that will last.” Stiles stuck his tongue out as the teacher turned to write on the board. Harris was a total asshole. He glanced at the detention slip. Damn. There went his Monday afternoon.  
***  
Erica was looking at him like he was nuts. “You want me to what?” Ordinarily, this reaction would not even phase Stiles but given the context of their conversation he was a little offended. You’d think he was asking her to strip down and perform a rain dance on the lunchroom table. On second thought, she looked like she would be a lot more willing to do that than what he was asking of her. Yeah, definitely a little insulted.  
Dammit, he should have asked Scott to ask Isaac. The boy was half in love with him. Sadly, Erica had lost her crush on Stiles with the appearance of Boyd and superpowers in her world. He sighed. “Look. I don’t see the issue here. He’s your alpha, right? Just tell him I need to talk to him. ASAP.”  
“Tell him yourself.” Really, now she was looking offended? “I’m not your errand girl.”  
“Erica, I’m not asking the world here. How exactly should I go about asking him myself? Are you going to give me his number?”  
“Hell no. He’d kill me.” She grunted, annoyed that his reasoning was sound. Stiles knew that in Derek's world they were on a strictly 'don’t call us, we’ll call you' communication system. His betas had all been expressly forbidden from giving Stiles (and by extension Scott) the number. Isaac had spilled the beans to Scott a couple of weeks prior.  
“There you go,” he smirked “I need a liaison, stat.” She looked uncomfortable. On one hand, Stiles felt bad for putting her on the spot. On the other, go big or go home. He put on his best pout and widened his eyes to near comical proportions, staring at the blonde, beseeching. “Come on, Catwoman. Help a guy out.”  
She groaned. Stiles grinned mentally, she never could resist when the nicknames came out. “Fine, I’ll tell him. I can’t guarantee his response, though. He’s pissed about the other night.”  
“How is that my fault?” Stiles scowled. “I hardly planned on becoming the great iguana’s puke bucket. So not my fault. And hey, we got Jackson back didn't we?”  
“You have to admit it was pretty stupid. Funny, but dumb. I mean, who head-butts a giant lizard?” She giggled staring at a point just behind Stiles, as if flashing back to that very moment.  
“Shut up. It was instinct.”  
“Are you sure you don’t want the bite? Only, I think you could use some revamping of your instincts. Yours appear to be faulty.” She wasn’t wrong, Stiles thought. It was a battle he fought every day both with himself and his father.  
“It’s genetic. I doubt even Lupin-itus would overcome it. Besides, I like my nails short and my sideburns trimmed.”  
“Way to make us sound diseased.” She glared at him.  
“Well, what else would you call it? I mean it is, at its essence, a virus that mutates DNA. It’s not exactly normal. And most genetic mutations can be classified under the same categories as disease.” Her eyes flashed gold. He held up his hands in a placating manner. “Down girl, just saying.”  
“Well, don’t.” She looked really upset…oh.  
“Sorry, Catwoman. I didn't mean… I wasn't thinking.” Dammit, him and his big mouth.  
She looked away, tamping down on her hurt. Stiles felt like an idiot. “Yeah, I know.” She said quietly. Jesus, this is why he only has one friend.  
“Erica…” He trailed off as the blonde stood abruptly from her seat on the stairs.  
“Sorry, Stiles. I’m hungry and lunch is already half over. I’ll tell Derek tonight. See you.” She walked away and Stiles hung his head.  
“Idiot.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seriously?! How have werewolves stayed secret this long?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I'm going to keep the Wednesday upload day, it works for me. This is entirely unbeta'd and honestly I use speech software a lot of time because I can't type nearly as fast as I can think so if you see some very strange random word occurrences in any chapters please, PLEASE, let me know. I keep catching mistakes and trying to fix them but they keep popping up and damn but there have been a few really stupid ones.

“Shit, man. Remind me to introduce you to a spiffy invention we here in the real world call a freaking door. It even has a little bell that you can ring to make yourself known to the inhabitants of the home. Magic, I know.” You would think Stiles’ heart would stop with the jack-rabbiting given how many times he had come home to wolves in his den. He tossed his bag to the side and sat on his bed facing the desk chair that a certain sour Wolf was perched on. “What are you doing here? It’s only,” Stiles glanced at his alarm clock, “five. Seriously, how have you not been found out? Jumping onto people’s roofs, sneaking into teenagers’ bedrooms… Now you're doing it in broad daylight?!”  
“You’re late.” The older man growled.  
“I didn't know we had an appointment.”  
“You told my beta that you wanted to see me.” He looked Stiles expectantly. Was he actually expecting him to just dive right in?  
“And what, she sent off a smoke signal from the school roof?”  
“She texted me.” Yeah, okay. He probably deserved that ‘were you dropped on your head’ look. “Apparently you said ASAP?”  
“I did. I didn't mean like now, though.” Note to self, wolves can be very literal. Watch that. “I just meant, you know, not next week. I was expecting a text or something.” If he was being honest, he had expected to be ignored completely. Go figure.  
“Well, I’m here. What is it?” Those eyebrows, man. They express so much. Annoyance, disdain, murderous intent. Maybe he should’ve waited until the alpha was less hostile in face of Stiles’ Stiles-ness.  
“Um, okay. So, here’s the thing, and this is going to sound really stupid but hear me out. My cousins are coming to visit. Soon-ish.” Okay, that was an uncalled for amount of growliness. Stiles ignored him and continued. “Anyways, my cousins are coming and I need to let you know because…”  
Derek was out of his chair before Stiles could finish. He stalked over to the window.  
“Woah, big guy, let me talk!”  
“Can’t believe I came all the way over here.” Derek grumbled as he opened the window.  
“Seriously?! Come on!” Stiles snapped at him, annoyed. “Fine. I was only telling you out of fucking courtesy, anyways. Just thought you would want to know that someone new was about to find out your big fuzzy secret.” He barked at the werewolf’s back as he jumped off the window ledge. He smirked and Derek appeared once more, eyes flashing red.  
“Explain.”  
“My cousins. They’re coming to vis…”  
“I got that part.” Stiles wondered if werewolves could get sore throats from excessive growling. That had to be strain on the vocal cords, at least the human ones. “What exactly does that have to do with anything?”  
“Well, one of us is going to cave if Ari questions us about what’s happening around here.” He paused. “Me or Scott, I mean. Not me or you. Although…”  
“Stiles.” This growl involved teeth as well as flashing eyes. It sure was Stiles’ lucky day.  
“Normally, that would scare me. Sorry, Ari is a whole hell of a lot scarier than you, sourwolf.” Stiles shuddered. Just the thought of what Ari could and would do if he wants information was enough to make a run for the hills. “He is going to find out, come hell or high water. It would be beyond unlikely for him not to find out even if he was coming alone.” Stiles paused trying to come up with a way to explain the situation to the alpha… Alpha, that’s the ticket.  
“Let’s try this. A little mental exercise if you will. Generation by generation the Stilinski’s run sort of, well, pack-like. You know how the stronger the park the stronger the alpha and vice versa? It’s like that. Ari is you, only less wolfy and more terrifying. Anyways, he’s terrifying on his own but if you think of the rest of us like his betas I think you’ll see the problem. He gets scarier exponentially with each additional family member. Don’t roll your eyes at me! I’m 100% serious. We’re dealing with scary to the power of four. This is… This is not…” Stiles scowled. He didn’t think Derek even knew how to laugh like that. “I’m glad I can amuse you, asshole, but this is not a laughing matter. This is the opposite of a laughing matter. It’s a crying matter, Derek, big, gross, tears that dishonor us as men.”  
“I don’t know why I even bother with you.” Derek rolled his eyes and moved back to the window. “Next time don’t bother me unless its for something that’s actually important.”  
“This is important dammit. Derek, you walk away from me.” Stiles cursed as Derek jumped out of the window and disappeared. “Fine, I warned him. He can’t say I didn’t. Not my fault he chooses not to believe me.”  
His phone rang. “Scott, he laughed at me.” Stiles whined. “No, idiot, Derek.”  
***  
“No luck?” Scott asked to Stiles sat down in his seat in class the next morning.  
“The opposite.” Stiles mumbled under his breath as he rubbed his eyes, frustrated.  
“What?” Scott frowned. “Dude, even I couldn't hear that.”  
“I said that I had the opposite of luck.”  
“I don’t…”  
“They’re coming early. Ari is working on some research thing and apparently the resources he needs are around here. He asked dad if he could use our place as his home base.”  
“Wait, that means he’s going to be busy. That’s good.” Scott grinned, “he may not notice anything...”  
“He’ll be here this weekend and will be crashing for the next, oh… 3 to 6 months… At least.”  
“Oh. I feel nauseous.” Scott sank further into his chair.  
“Join the club.” Stiles offered Scott his water bottle, which was gladly accepted. “There’s some good-ish news.”  
“Yeah?” Scott looked so hopeful Stiles hated to squash his optimism.  
No, actually, he didn’t. He was not enduring the misery of the situation alone. What else were best friends for besides commiseration? “Yep. Only Iggy is coming with him early.”  
“That’s good. Two are easier to deal with than…” Scott stopped short and choked, painfully, on the water.  
“Took you long enough.” Stiles chuckled wanly.  
“Just Iggy?”  
“Yep.”  
“This is your good news?!”  
“Good-ish. I do believe I said goodish news.”  
“There is nothing about what you just said that even qualifies as not awful! Ari is coming without a, a…”  
“Temper?” Stiles offered. “Yeah, exactly. Without Val here to keep him on an even keel we have exactly zero chance of keeping anything from him. I mean it isn't much different from the .0001% chance we had before but yeah, hope is lost.  Iggy will only encorage him.”  
“Three days then.” Scott murmured. “What if we…”  
“Scottie-boy?” Stiles stared at his best friend. The Wolf hums sadly. “Face facts, we’re screwed six ways to Sunday.”  
The pair sat in contemplative silence for a few moments until they were interrupted by an annoyed she-beta. “You!” She growled at Stiles.  
“Catwoman, so lovely to see you. Wonderful weather we’re having.”  
“Cut the crap. Boss was not pleased with me last night. See if I ever liaise for your ass again.”  
“Not my fault sourwolf doesn’t believe me. I had something to talk to him about. He was the one that was an ass about it.”  
“Yeah, I heard. Visitors are not important pack business unless they are actual potential threats. I’m quoting here. The only threat Stilinski’sfamily holds is the potential to talk us all to death. That one was Peter.”  
“Ari and Val are pretty quiet most of the time, actually. Iggy is the talkative one. He has worse ADHD than Stiles.” Scott said as he took his backpack out, looking for something. He pulled out his phone and checked his messages. “Allison needs to talk to me, be back in a few.” He hightailed it out of the room.  
E tu, Brutus?  
“Sure, leave me here with the pissed off she-wolf. Feeling the love here, buddy!” Stiles called after him. He turned his attention back to the blonde. “Erica, I was being totally serious when I warned Derek about Ari last night. Whether he believes me or not, the fact of the matter is this furry little secret is about to be blown wide open.”  
“Don’t tell them if you are that concerned. It’s not rocket science, Batman. If you can keep it from your dad, you can keep it from your cousins.” She sunk into Scott’s empty seat.  
“It’s not that simple. First of all, my dad is always busy. It’s not like he doesn’t know something is wrong, he just trusts that I’ll come to him if I can’t deal with it. 'Give up the ghost’ is not in Ari’s vocabulary. Once he sees something wrong he will latch on like a fucking pittbull. This isn’t exactly a benign teen dramatics issue. Ari won’t look away if I come home covered in bruises and scratches. He doesn’t _do_ Sunnydale syndrome.”  
“Okay, fine…” She paused and shook her head. “You think what’s his name is a threat?”  
“Ari. And no, not like a Hunter threat or anything. I’m on your side, so hes not about to hurt you. Or expose you, even. As long as you don’t get on his bad side. But, that being said, the fact that he thinks I don't have deplorable character judgment doesn’t make him any less of a formidable opponent. In fact, it makes him more of one.” Erica looked entirely unconvinced.  
Stiles really hated how inexplicable the situation was turning out to be. Very few people at the school had ever met a Stilinski other than Stiles or the Sheriff. Jackson and Danny had met Val one time, when he had visited when Stiles was in middle school, but he doubted either of them even remembered. Well, Danny might, given his inability to speak coherent sentences in the older man’s presence.  
Regardless, no one had interacted with any of Stiles’s cousins on any significant level beside Scott… And Mama McCall. Therefore, as much as he hated to admit it, the general skepticism he was getting in response to his warnings was not exactly unexpected… But honestly, they trusted him to do all the research, why can't they just listen when he has something to say?  
He glared at the floor. “Fine, you know what? I gave you guys the information. Conscience cleared. Do with it what you will.”  
The final warning bell rang out and Scott came bounding back into the room. Erica stood up. “Tell him that I’m giving Lydia the info I found on Scales.” Stiles added as the blonde made to leave. She nodded her assent and left for her own home room.  
“No luck with her either?” Scott murmured as the other students settled in around them.  
Stiles have to replied, “What you think? You know, she used to have a crush on me. You would think she would listen to me for old times sake. And you, you know what might help? If someone other than me was backing me on this. Your cell phone never even went off.” He glared harshly at the other boy.  
“She freaks me out, man. And hey, at least she didn’t laugh. You know, like Derek did.”  
“At least there’s that.” Stiles couldn’t help the sarcasm. He came by it honestly after all.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Definitions vary greatly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's not actually late. It's not. There are still two hours left to the day here, so there. And I totally didn't forget that I hadn't posted it until I was literally in bed. Pshaw. I don't know what you are talking about. Enjoy.

Stiles stared at the flashing invitation on his laptop screen, frozen. He had already ignored it 10 times, R.Stilinski just kept on a'calling.  
The message disappeared but Stiles knew better than to be relieved. Ari was nothing if not persistent.Sure enough, the new invite appeared within a few moments. Stiles laughed, sneaky, on the flip side, was more of Val’s forte. Ari was the in your face, see-him-coming-from-a-mile-away-but-still-don't-have-a-chance-in-hell-of-getting-away type.

There was no escaping this, he knew, so he clicked to accept the video call from iggyrock.  
“Really? You stoop to hacking your little brother's Skype account to get me to answer you? I thought you were better than this, Rajmund.” Stiles shook his head with a playfully disappointed sigh.  
“It worked, didn’t it?” Ari glared at him. “If you just answered my calls I wouldn't have had to.”  
“Um hm. Sure, sure.” Stiles couldn't help but grin at his cousin. Freaking out about the werewolf issue aside, he was glad to see Ari. They rarely got to video chat due to Ari’s busy schedule and Stiles’… uh...extracurriculars. “You cut your hair.” he commented.  
“I did.” The older man chuckled, amused.  
Ari’s dark locks had been chopped from their previous shoulder length and now rested close to his head with choppy bangs which fell stylishly into his right eye, a common denominator in all of the Ari’s many and varied hairstyles. Stiles never really understood his cousin’ s need to mask his scar. Besides, he even had a badass story to go with it. “Looks good. Emo-bangs suit you. New glasses, too. Very rebel professor. Looks hot with the puke colored grandpa sweater. Tell me, does it have leather sleeve patches?”  
“As a matter of fact it does.”  
“Nice, nice. I still think you should go the Fury route and get an eye patch, but this is cool, too.” And all joking aside, it was.  
Ari, for all his severity and seriousness could be considered the rebellious one of their generation. The 24-year-old's brownish black hair was streaked with neon green this time, a change from the previous dark blue. No one would guess that he was the master’s degree wielding, PhD candidate, son of a baker and an accountant just by looking at him.  
Val? Sure. He looked every inch the upscale marketing lackey he was. Even Iggy was more the boy next door type with his fluffy hair and his huge-ass cow eyes. Ari, though. Ari looked like some sort of Raver, scene-boy, only bigger and badder and dorky as hell.  
Stiles thought it was kind of awesome his aunt and uncle never pressured Ari to change his style… Whatever that was at a given moment. They were probably just happy that he had a more outwardly normal personality in comparison to their youngest, and hey, they did get a ridiculously normal middle child at least.  
Ari was watching him carefully, a single pierced eyebrow raised. “Are you even listening?” Oh, Stiles thought, Ari had been talking to him.  
“Sorry, no.” Stiles couldn’t be bothered to deny th at he had zoned out. It was like the older man didn’t know.  
“Of course you weren’t.” Ari sighed. “I said that I’m having two boxes of my research books shipped to your house. They should get there tomorrow or the next day around 5 PM. You need to sign for them for me.”  
“Oh, yeah, sure. That’s fine. I’ll be home by then.” Was that really what all this insistent calling was about? A text would’ve worked. “Anything good?” He was curious, sue him. Ari was a font of knowledge on all things preternaturally inclined.  
“Don’t you worry your pretty little head about them, Grzegorz. Those boxes had better still be sealed when I get there.” Ari’s glares, one eyed or not, were formidable. There was pain promised in that look.  
“Yes, sir! Stiles no touchy, got it.” He agreed without hesitation. He did wonder if he could peek in and re-seal the boxes before Ari found out. There was no need for his cousin to know that thought process though.  
“I may only have vision in one eye but I still see all, Grzegorz. All.”  
“I know, Heimdall.” Thwarted again. “I won’t even look at the boxes. I’ll go to the door blindfolded if it pleases you.”  
“Brat.”  
“You love me.” Stiles batted his eyes playfully.  
“I have to, don’t I?” Ari's fond smile gave him away, Stiles was obviously his favorite.  
“Is that the real reason why you have been calling me constantly for the past hour?” He had to know.  
“No, it wasn’t.” Honest and straightforward, as usual. “Grzegorz, I’m concerned about you.”  
Shit. He hadn’t even gotten into the state and he already knew something was wrong. “Why? I’m fine. How about you? New project, I hear. Didn't you just finish off research project last month? Don’t strain yourself too much, you look stressed. Have you considered a spa day?” Stiles dodged futilely. He wasn’t sure why he even bothered to try.  
“Stiles.” Wow, okay. He is not nearly as good at hiding his issues as he thought if Ari was concerned enough to use his nickname. Ari was the opposite of the rest of the family. Nicknames were not a sign of affection but of frustration, or in this case, worry. If Ari called you anything other than your given name you were screwed, family rule.  
“Rajmund, I’m okay. I mean my life isn’t rainbows and fluffy puppies…” Well, actually… “But I’m muddling through all by myself.”  
“Stiles, you are 16 years old. 'Muddling through all by yourself’ is not healthy. If you can't talk to Uncle Justek, talk to me –“ he paused and frowned, “or if you are comfortable with me, perhaps Wladyslaw or Ignacek.”  
Stiles sighed. Now Ari thought he didn’t trust him, awesome.  
“No, Ari. Look, I’m just…” God dammit, what was he supposed to say? “I don’t want to talk about it. With anyone, period.” It was better Ari think he was just being a pissy teenager.  
Ari stared at him, silent. A moment passed...  
Another...  
The elder nodded slowly, “Fine. For now.”  
Stiles felt his entire body relax. This. This is why Ari was his favorite. He knew how to work around others. He had empathy, he got it. Oldest or not, he was still enough of a kid inside to get teen angst.  
If only that was what the issue really was.  
Val would push, trying to be the responsible adult. Iggy would pester, like a child. Ari would just let it go. At least until he knows for a fact that something is seriously wrong. Once he confirmed that it wasn’t actually teen issues plaguing Stiles he’d grab hold like a pitbull, and the Beacon Hills supernatural community wouldn’t stand a chance.  
Teen angst was teen angst. Werewolves were a whole different kind of beast… Pun completely intended.  
Stiles glanced down at the pile next to his computer, luckily just out of his Webcam's sight. His, quote-unquote, school project on Kanima. What a joke. Lydia had the information he had collected now. Both of them knew something vital was missing. Some pieces of this particular puzzle were not fitting and they were running out of time and resources.  
The Argent’s Beastiary had nothing. And neither did Deaton's collection.  
Nada.  
Zip.  
Zilch.  
Beyond identifying and destroying and yet more unsubstantiated (and frankly, terrifying) lore they didn’t really provide solutions, just more problems.  
You had to love fairytale scare tactics. Teaching children to fear the dark before they even know what the dark is. Stiles used to complain that the commonplace tales, like Disney, were not nearly as cool or informative as the old school, bloody, terror-inducing stories of times past.  
He and Scott had watched Disney Princess movies at their last marathon.  
When the things that go bump start bumping at the door; a kinder, gentler, fairytale did not go amiss.  
“You’re drifting again.” Stiles was startled from his thoughts by Ari’s chuckle. “Am I so boring?”  
“No. Sorry, Ari. I just thinking, what were you saying?” Stiles pulled his mind back into the conversation.  
“Grzegorz, if you’re not interested or busy, you can tell me. I don't mind. Like you said, I just finished one project and am not yet starting the next. I’m honestly just really freaking bored. Idle hands and all that jazz. You don’t have to sit and listen to me babble.” Ari grinned.  
“No, it’s good. I’m interested. Just… Start over?” Stiles’ returning grin was a bit of a sheepish side. “What were we talking about?”  
“My new project.” Ari laughed.  
“Oh, right. So, what is it?”  
“When you tune out you really tune out, huh?”  
“Sorry 'bout that.”  
***  
Stiles waved goodbye to the UPS guy as he closed the front door. Turning to the ‘boxes’ of books he laughed and shook his head. He pulled out his cell and snapped a picture of the two -huge- locked trunks and sent a text to Ari.

Apparently our definitions of the word box differ profoundly.  
Is it a three dimensional rectangle that can store items inside?  
Yes.  
Then it’s a box.  
Sure. Whatever you say. Want them in the guest room?  
Don’t kill yourself. They’re heavy.  
I noticed. We got the beefy UPS driver.  
At least they weren’t fragile.  
At least.  
Stiles stared at the trunks and sent the image to Scott with an SOS. There was no way he was going to be able to move those on his own.  
He received a response in a matter of seconds.

WTH?  
Ari’s books. UPS guy wasn’t happy.  
Yikes.  
I’ll buy you pizza.  
Be there in 10.  
Stiles glanced at the trunks one last time and snickered. He moved to the kitchen to find the pizza place's menu. He called in the usual order and was just finishing the call when he let Scott and, (surprise, surprise) Allison in. He hung up and rolled his eyes at them. “Good thing I sprang for the extra-large pies.”  
Allison shrugged. “Wasn’t my idea. I’m just along for the ride.” She grinned happily at him. “Any cookies left?”  
“Cabinet next to the stove.” She bounded in to the kitchen. Stiles turned to Scott “Can sucking face with a werewolf turn you into one? Or bumping uglies?”  
“Stiles!” Scott looked scandalized. That was always fun.  
“What? She eats nearly as much as Erica does.” Stiles commented before nodding to the trunks. “Guestroom please, pack mule.” Scott sighed and picked up one of them and made for the stairs.  
Stiles went to the kitchen where Alice was happily munching on a snickerdoodle. “Happy?”  
“Absolutely.” She swallowed the bite she had taken. “So, those are full of books?”  
“Yep.” Stiles grabbed a cookie of his own. “My cousin Ari is a...well, I guess he’s a researcher. A PhD candidate.”  
“Yeah, Scott told me. He studies the supernatural?”  
“Sort of. He studies folklore and along with folklore comes supernatural things.”  
“So all those books are about our kind of stuff?” She took another bite, “like the beastiary?”  
“Yeah, some of them. Some are lore books and others, spell books, and everything in between. If it’s old, dusty, and potentially dangerous, at least for those of us that know this stuff is real, Ari probably has it in one of those trunks.”  
“Heavy too, he forgot to mention heavy.” Scott muttered as he walked into join them.  
“Says the one with the supernatural physical abilities. UPS guy didn’t struggle.” Scott scowled at him. Stiles laughed. Okay, so maybe the UPS guy had struggled a little. Still, he was human. As far as Stiles knew, at least. No wolfy strength there.  
Allison laughed and sat down at the kitchen table. “So, you don’t think we can keep your cousins out of this? I mean we’ve all gotten pretty good at keeping those that aren’t involved out of this mess. Proximity may be an issue but I’m sure we can think up some plausible solutions.”  
“That would be nice if Ari wasn’t so suspicious of me right now. I could tell him the sky is blue and he wouldn’t believe me. He’s holding back until he A) is close enough to strangle me for being an idiot and B) has sufficient evidence for my dad to get him out of the jail time that would come about after he strangles me for being an idiot. He’ll be less…tactful, once he is here.”  
Allison nodded absently, “Okay, so keeping them out isn’t an option. How about just telling them flat out? If we explain the danger maybe they’ll understand that they shouldn’t get involved.”  
Even Scott couldn’t hold back his laughter at that, though he was quickly cowed by his girlfriend’s glare. Allison obviously did not appreciate being laughed at. “I don’t see what is so funny.” She muttered turning her glare on Stiles.  
“Whoa, sister." He balked. "It isn’t you, it’s just…that won’t help…like at all.”  
“It would make everything so much worse.” Scott offered apologetically.  
Stiles took over quickly seeing her frown. “So,” he explains, handing her another cookie as a peace offering. It was best to stay on the good side of the girl with the compact bow, after all. “telling Ari that I’m…we’re…involved in something dangerous will only make him protective.”  
He grimaced. His mind started flashing comic book style images of Ari hacking through a variety of supernatural fiends while lecturing Derek Hale on the finer points of not getting his Betas and, by extension, Stiles killed with his inability to…well, Alpha.  
He shook the images out of his mind, “It would not be pretty. Could be potentially hilarious but...just trust me on this one.”  
“You can’t be serious. We can’t keep them out of it but we can’t tell them either? What exactly is the plan then?”  
“Look, let’s try putting this in perspective for you; just never, ever, tell Ari that I told you.” Ari would kill him. There would be actual death and pain and blood involved. “Danger is not a deterrent for Rajmund Stilinski. He eats danger for breakfast, like pop-tarts. Pop-tarts, Argent. He is also intensely protective of his family which means danger involving the family is like…”  
“Cinnamon buns.” Scott offered.  
Stiles looked at his best friend incredulously. “Yes, Scott. Cinnamon buns.” He shook his head wearily. “Not cinnamon buns.” He informs Allison unnecessarily. “Apparently the food comparison was too much for him. Moving on, the point of the matter is Ari isn’t the type to walk away. Where there is danger, there is Ari. Story time, when Ari was 16 he got himself stabbed for a random stranger on the street. Multiple times. Two in the abdomen, one to the thigh, and a rather vicious slash to the eye, leaving him blind on the right side.” Allison gasped and made to speak, but Stiles continued, “even injured he still took the guy down and held him until the cops came. We almost lost him to blood loss.”  
Stiles shivered remembering that day clearly. His parents had pulled him out of school and they were on the first flight out. Seeing Ari in the hospital bed had felt like a stab to his own chest. He, Val, and Iggy refused to leave his side for two days until he woke up. He shook himself out of the memory.  
“Ari only has one fear and that is that someone else might get hurt. That fear only makes him stronger and more volatile. If he'd do something like that for random stranger…” Especially given that the victim was as much a gang member as the attacker, albeit a temporarily unarmed one. He decided that telling Allison that part was unnecessary. He continued, “what you think he would do for his family?”  
Family was absolutely everything to a Stilinski. He himself would kill or die for one of his cousins or Scott, his brother in all but blood. Ari was worse.  
She didn’t try to speak this time, though she stared at Scott as if looking for confirmation. Scott nodded at her and her jaw snapped closed. “There really is no keeping this away from him, is there?”  
“There really isn’t.” Stiles confirmed. “And he’d never keep anything from his brothers.”  
“Then what do we do?” She whispered worriedly.  
Stiles understood. Involving more people meant more people being danger. In all honesty, however, they were way past the point of no return. Knowledge is power at this point and knowledge is exactly what Rajmund Stilinski did. Stiles was getting more willing by the day to admit defeat. He needed Ari to figure out this mess and heneeded him soon.  
A part of him wondered if telling him flat out really wouldn’t end well; if throwing himself at him and blurting it all out and letting Ari handle the world for him like he always had was such a bad idea. Part of him wondered when things are gotten so bad that his pride didn’t even merit consideration anymore. But then again, a part of him knew.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He probably should have seen this one coming.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's early even...  
> If a little short, the next couple broke up weird so this one got dwarfed. If I finish my schoolwork in a timely manner I'll post 6 on Saturday.  
> I think I got the formatting right here, let me stare at it for a few days and if I like it I'll fix the first four chapters.

He burst into the subway station carelessly, tripping twice and nearly falling on his ass when he slipped on someone's discarded t-shirt.

Stupid stripper wolves.

“How bad?” He asked Lydia, who was sitting, tear streaked, on one of the seats. Her arms were wrapped around her legs and she looked terrified… And heartbroken.  
He dropped to his knees in front of her and examined the scratches on her arms. “Are you okay?”

It was a silly question.

“Fine, I’m fine.” She sounded anything but. “Jackson just… Something scared him. A nightmare, I think.” She was trembling and staring at the floor in a very Un-Lydia like fashion. She took a shuddering breath, pulling herself together. “The anti-venom works. So there’s that.”

She and Deaton had finally worked one out a couple of days ago.

“That’s good.” He said soothingly.

She frowned at him, probably sensing his attempts at mollifying her. She didn't say anything about it though, which told him more than words ever could. Lydia Martin was accepting comfort from Stiles Stilinski.

Things had officially gone to hell.

“I never thought I’d be grateful for that…” She trailed off. Stiles knew she was referring to Peter. “He pulled me out from under Jackson. I just, I don’t know what to do. Nothing is working. I feel like all that research has been for nothing. It’s like he’s getting worse. I know that our relationship isn’t what the Kanima needs, but I thought it would work until we found a solution. We’re just lucky that he is so spoiled and his parents are so, well, absent. I don’t know how much longer that’s going to last, though.”

“We’ll figure it out, Lydia.” Stiles said “everything is going to be fine.”

Was everything going to be fine? He was starting to wonder.

Peter and Derek stumbled out of the room (for lack of a better word) Jackson was staying in. Derek growled at the sight of him. What else was new? “What are you doing here?”

“Now, now, nephew. I sent him a message.” Peter drawled, grabbing a bottle of water from the case sitting on the ground. “We should really invest in one of those mini fridges.” He made a face as he drank down the lukewarm liquid. “Anyways, I thought we should probably discuss our next steps since our current plan is not working out in our favor. Given that Ms. Martin and Mr. Stilinski know the most about our serpentine friend I figured they may be useful.”

Another tidbit from Ari’s books. Kanima and Lamia were related and way more snake them lizard. Not that would stop Stiles from calling him an iguana.

Stiles sighed and glared at the werewolf’s. “I’ve told you everything I have found on Kanima. Yes, okay? Something’s missing, but my personal resources are limited. If you have some suggestions, evil undead, I would be willing to hear them.”

“Are you really?” He questioned.

Stiles did not like that sneer.

Not one bit.

“Out of resources, I mean. It seems to me, given the information you come up with, you have far more sources than you’ve let on. Certainly more than Ms. Martin or I have at our disposal.”

Lydia looked Stiles, confused. “What is he talking about?” She glared at him suddenly suspicious. “Stiles.”

Derek interrupted, “What do you know?”

Stiles fought down a flinch.

What you know, alpha voice worked on humans as well.

The things you learn.

“I’ve told you,” he stressed “I’ve got nothing else.”

“Jackson is getting too dangerous without a master, Stilinski. If this doesn’t get results soon I’m going to have to put him down.”

Blunt, thy name is Hale.

Lydia’s breath stuttered.

“Your information is coming from somewhere. Where there’s some, there may be more.” Peter spoke from his spot by the door to the car. “Or perhaps you are a crueler creature than I’d imagined and are still waiting for your chance with Ms. Martin.” He smirked.

What wouldn’t Stiles give to punch that man in the face?

“Look, I think that even merits a response. I don’t have anything…”

“Where did you get the information, Stiles?” Lydia whispered. “Where are the books, the sites?”

“I gave you the scans, Lydia. You have what I have.”

“The scans are from books. Where are the books they came from?”

Stiles sighed heavily. “I don’t have them. I only have the scans.”

“Then where did you get the scans? I doubt they just appeared magically in your hands.”

Lydia could get really shrill when she wanted to.

Stiles should probably be more offended that Lydia was listening to Peter over him.

Mostly though, he was feeling guilty. He may not have any more resources of his own, but he did know where to get them. His mind flashed to the trunks in his guest room. “I know someone.” He skirted.

“You know someone?” Peter scoffed. “Who exactly do you know?”

“I just do, okay? I asked for information and I got it. But I don’t have access to any more.” Stiles snapped. “I didn’t tell them what it was about. I said it was a school project.”

“A school project… On lizard men?”

The eyebrow talking with a genetic thing, definitely a genetic thing.

“Yeah well, there’s a reason why can’t get more information out of them easily.”

Lydia frowned and stared at him. “Is this about… Allison was telling me last night…”

“Yeah.” At least, he assumed that Allison had told her about Ari and not some random other information that was not the reason for the situation.

“Oh.” She looked away.

“What are you talking about?” Derek growled.

Peter looked intrigued.

Wonderful.

That’s just what they needed, Peter’s interest.

“My cousins. The ones I told you about. The eldest is a PhD candidate in folklore and the youngest is a history/folklore undergraduate. It’s what they do. Ari has a ton of books and information on the subject.” Chew on that.

“Your cousins?” Aw, look at the snarly Wolfman.

“Yes, my cousins. I really wasn’t joking about them finding out. It’s not as much of a leap for them as you expected, huh?” Now was not the time for smugness, Stiles, he reminded himself. But God, it felt good to shove his right-ness and Derek’s face. “Look, Ari will be here tomorrow. I can maybe get a hold of books when he gets here. I’ll see what I can do.” Besides, if Ari found out he might be able to help. “I need a key to open his trunks.”

He could have smacked himself. Why had he said that? The book on Peter’s face was positively conniving. “I’m sure I can make it work.”

“No, no. Not happening. Ari will kill me.” And honestly how many deaths could one man die at his cousin’s hand.

...Aannd Peter wasn’t listening.

In fact, he was already across the room digging through a box and tossing things into a discarded bag.

Stiles turned to Derek. “Seriously, they'll be here in the morning. I can…”

He was startled by a series of rapid-fire bangs against the door to Jackson’s temporary cage.

Lydia flinched.

Peter sighed, “I suppose the tranquilizers are getting less effective.”

Derek glared at Stiles.

“Shit.”

***

“Oh, I’m a little depressed. These aren’t even the hard kind of locks to get into.” Peter muttered as he pulled a lock picking kit from his bag of tricks.

It was embossed with his initials.

Of course it was.

“This will be fast.”

“I’m dead. Ari is going to eviscerate me. And you. All of us. We’re not going to have to worry about Jackson, Ari is going to kill us before he ever gets the chance.” Stiles muttered.

Isaac was watching Peter raptly. Sure enough the older man had both trunks opened in less than a minute.

“Will you stop that? We’ll re-lock them when we’re done. Your cousin will never know." Peter rolled his eyes at Stiles. He reached into the first trunk and pulled a few books out, flipping the first one to the index. "Now start…”

“Oh, won’t I?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am actually coming up on the end of Embers in terms of writing! Of course it is only the first of a planned series of at least 4-5 fics but it will be the official first time that I have ever completed writing something. If you can call it completed, this world has a long way to go. BTW, this chapter is nowhere near the completion of the fic, I just got really excited when I realized that I only have two more planned chapters to write, which will probably turn into like three or four but hey, I usually write two-three in a day so not long now. Once that is done I get to start book two which starts to get a bit more exciting so I am looking forward to that.
> 
> See you next week,
> 
> Happy reading!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well...that's different.

Stiles stiffened like a board.

Oh, God.

Please let this be an auditory hallucination.

He turned slowly to face the door.

Visual too?

No such luck, judging by the looks on Isaac and Peter’s faces.

Iggy scuffled into the room, squeezing between his brother and the door frame. “Better view from in here.” He muttered not looking at Stiles.

Stiles struggled to come up with a plausible explanation. He had nothing. “Ari! Hi, what are you doing here? You guys were supposed to get in tomorrow.”

Did he really sound that squeaky?

“Ignacek finished his internship hours early. We thought to surprise you.”

“Surprise.” Iggy laughed.

“Oh. That’s cool. Long trip?”

He was stalling, so sue him.

“I thought so. We drove. And have very different taste in music. Apparently not quite long enough however. Should we come back later?”

“That would be great, actually. We should be done in a couple hours.”

Peter was five. Stiles swore to himself. Why did he go along with this? Why did he even tell them about the books?

“Ari, look I just… Needed to find the book Iggy sent scans of for my project. I need to cite it.”

“It’s Friday night.”

“Yeah. It is that.”

“Were you planning to go to school on Saturday? That’s the only reason I can think of that would leave you so desperate that you couldn’t wait until I arrived tomorrow.”

“I…uh…” Dammit, he was normally so much better than this at excuses. He was ashamed.

“I see, and this is… Your teacher? Also, clearly, desperate to get his bibliography?” Ari stared at Peter harshly. “If that book is what you’re looking for you will find your endeavor quite useless.”

Stiles’eyes shot up, startled. The book wasn’t in the trunks?

Iggy opened his backpack and pulled out an old, worn, leather bound book. Stiles’ heart sank. He was going to die for nothing. Iggy jiggled book in front of Peter with a laugh,

“Sorry, I needed it to finish a write-up for my internship.”

Peter reached out to take the book, unfazed by the cousin’s arrival. That wasn’t going to last long. Ari crossed the room and took the book from Iggy himself. “Apologies, Mr. Hale, but this is not for you.”

He knew who he was?

“You know who I am?”

“Peter Hale, age 27, missing, burn victim, comatose.” Ari recited staring back.

“Someone’s done their research.”

“I do try.” Ari responded, coolly. “Now, ignoring the obvious for a moment. Stiles, would you like to try again? No, Mr. Lahey, please, stay.” Isaac stopped in his tracks as he made for the door behind Ari’s back. Ari looked Stiles expectantly waiting for him to speak.

Suddenly a phone rang, obnoxiously loud given the situation.

Peter's.

His eyes darted to his jacket which was lying on the bed. Ari nodded to Iggy who pulled out the phone and set it to speaker. Peter growled and made to go after him only to find himself restrained, single-handedly, by Ari.

Stiles’ jaw hung slack. It didn’t even look like he was straining. Completely at ease. “Ignacek.” He nodded to his brother who accepted the call.

Derek’s voice boomed, filling the room. “What is the point of you having a phone if you don’t answer, Peter? Did you get the book?”

“Ah, so this is a two Hale matter, is it, Stiles?” Ari spoke clearly.

“Who the hell is…?”  
“Derek Hale, I presume.” Ari interrupted. “Perhaps you can answer my questions. Your uncle seems a bit lost for words at the moment and Mr. Lahey and my cousin also appear to have fallen mute.”

“Cousin?” Derek growled.

Cover, what cover?

“You’d be Ari, then.”

“I am. Now, what might two Hales and some 16-year-olds need with information about Kanima? I was given to understand that your degree was completed last year. And is in business. Now, your uncle never completed his degree, due to his coma, but he was pre-law so I’m still unsure of the connection.”

Stiles couldn’t breathe. How had Ari known about the Hales? Where the hell was he getting this information? Derek’s voice echoed his thoughts.

“Public information only, I assure you.” Ari said, dryly. “Now, back to the matter at hand. My book?”

Derek growled again, this time with a bit more alpha. Isaac flinched. “Where is my uncle?”

“Right here. Honestly, what have you been saying about me, Grzegorz? This one seems to think this is some sort of ransom call. Speak your nephew, Mr. Hale. He seems edgy.”

Peter grunted, annoyed, but gave no other concession to Ari’s request. Ari sighed. “Is he always so obstinate?”

Stiles stifled a laugh. Peter glared at him. Ari looked at them pointedly and Stiles mimed zipping his lips. “Derek,” Ari continued “may I call you Derek?” Even sour Wolf seem to recognize he wasn’t really asking and just grunted. “Now, you may look at the book if you wish, of course. A friend of Grzegorz is a friend of mine after all. But, as it is very old and rather valuable, I will have to insist on being there. I will be expecting you and any other interested parties to be here within the hour.” He nodded to Iggy who hung up the call immediately.

Ari looked at his watch. “6:30. Shall we order something to eat?”

“Oh! Chinese, please.” Iggy grinned and bounced downstairs to find a delivery menu.

“Isaac, Grzegorz, Peter, if you wouldn’t mind I’m quite sweaty from the car trip and would like to freshen up before further guests arrive.” Stiles pushed Isaac out the door and made to go after him until he noticed Peter was glaring at Ari in a rather one-sided staring contest. He grabbed the werewolf by the arm and pulled. “Come on.”

***

“This is ridiculous.” Peter grumbled as he paced back and forth across the hallway. Derek was glaring at the stairs menacingly. He left Erica and Boyd on Kanima watch and was less than pleased about it.

He, Scott, Allison, and Lydia had arrived within 15 minutes of the call ended been waiting for another 15 for Ari to come downstairs. Iggy was lounging on the couch sipping on a can of soda and watching the group, amused.

“So, I’m guessing this was a group project, Stiles?” He chuckled.

He was definitely enjoying being the only one in a room not on his brother’s shit-list.

Stiles ignored him pointedly.

The doorbell rang with the Chinese delivery about 10 minutes later and Iggy dug through the bags, happily, looking for the Crab Rangoons. He glanced around the silent room.

“Come on now, it’s delicious.”

Scott sighed and dug into the food, as well. Stiles and Allison joined them a moment later.

Might as well have a good last meal.

Isaac kept glancing over at them only to catch Derek’s glare.

“Mr. Lahey, eat. The food will go to waste.” Ari’s voice floated down the stairs causing Peter and Derek to stiffen. He appeared with a stack of books and walked downstairs to join them. He laid them out on the coffee table. “Don’t touch until you wash your hands.” He warned.

Lydia didn’t hesitate. She was off and back a moment later, picking up a book with clean hands. She flipped open to the index searching for a place to start. Peter scowled, but choose to join her.

One by one they all began to read.

Ari watched them page through the volumes over his container of Kung-Pao Chicken.

“So, Kanima?” He questioned. “A little obscure, don’t you think? I mean, for a school project.”

“All the good monsters were taken.” Peter quipped.

“I see. Were you all looking for something more specific than what my cousin already has?”

Stiles kept his eyes glued to the book in front of him avoiding the glare he could feel.

“Some key information seems to be missing.” Peter drawled.

“Oh, really? Now that is odd.” Ari leaned over and picked up one of the books on the table. He thumbed through it for a moment before setting it back down, open, with a thud.

Stiles let his eyes fall onto the pages.

Reckless love, the section title screamed.

An artsy image in the much newer book depicting a serpentine man throwing himself onto a blade poised to kill an armored man.

“Wonderful to see that my family takes such a profound interest in reading my works.” Ari said. He walked over to the living room bookshelf and pulled a second copy of the book off the shelf.

Peter grabbed the open copying immediately began skimming. His eyes flashed blue and he growled at Stiles. “You’ve had this book the whole time?”

Stiles really hoped that Ari would write that off as a trick of the light. He doubted it. Stiles picked up what was apparently the book that held all the answers.

“Page 254.” Ari told him as he settled back into his food.

Stiles examined the cover and tossed Ari a sheepish smile when he came to the authors. Rajmund Dorena. His aunt’s maiden name. Ari had sent a copy, per his mother’s order, to every family member household just before they hit the shelves last year.

Stiles remembered flipping through it when their copy first came and he remembered memorizing just enough of the introduction, written by Ari’s favorite professor/mentor, to convince his cousin that he had, in fact, read it.

So, that was a poor decision.

Lesson learned.

He opened to the right section and began to read, discovering that the entire chapter was on bonded creature mythos. Personally, he thought the title should have been ‘fantastic beasts and how to love them’(lost opportunity right there) rather than the boring ‘Bonding Creatures’ that headed up the chapter. He did give him credit for the more interesting section headings.

Lydia dropped the book she had been working with and grabbed the new book right on Stiles’ hands. “Hey.” He grunted, though he wasn’t protesting all that hard. Only now he is nothing to distract him from Ari staring. There was this look on his face, somewhere between anger, suspicion, and humor. Ari emoted with his eye much like the Hales communicated with their eyebrows.

Laughter lit up the pale green gaze suddenly. Ari was mocking him. Stiles could practically hear his voice. ‘You actually thought you would have even the slightest chance of keeping a secret from me? Foolish mortal, have you learned nothing?’

And yes, Ari did sound like a bad video game villain in Stiles’ head.

Desperate not to be the center of Ari’s attention, Stiles grabbed a container of lo mein and began stuffing his face. He refused to allow his eyes to wander past the edge of the little white box.

The cushion beside him sank suddenly and he tensed.

Ari slung an arm over her shoulder and pulled him back against the couch. “Cousin, how have you been? Such an… Eclectic group of friends you’ve made it the last few months. I’m intrigued. Given your general apathy about my studies, I’m surprised about how interested you and your friends seem to be in the topic.”

“I…uh… Scott?” Stiles whined plaintively as the arm boxing him in squeezed tighter.

Some best friend, Stiles thought, he didn’t even pretend to consider coming to his rescue.

“Oh, I’m not interested in your puppy right now. I’m totally invested in hearing about my beloved cousin. I’ll get to him later.” Scott definitely tensed at that.

Serves him right. See if Stiles came to his rescue later.

“So what? I made some friends. That is totally normal teen behavior.” Stiles tried.

It sounded weak even to his own ears.

“Of course.” Ari agreed.

He wasn’t even looking at Stiles. He knew he didn’t have to.

Issac kept darting glances at, and moving closer to, Derek, obviously seeking his alpha’s protection.

Shit.

His eyes were flashing amber every few seconds in an obvious threat alert that the other teen was trying (and failing dismally) to hide. Well, if Ari hadn’t seen Peter’s eyes earlier he was definitely seeing this.

“We just have so much catching up to do, Grzegorz. I so many questions. How’s school? Chem teacher still an ass? I see you’ve gotten over your crush on Miss Martin. Any new prospects?”

He wasn’t giving Stiles anytime to actually answer him. Stiles knew something was about to happen.

Ari sounded a little too lighthearted and Stiles could see Iggy flipping a coin through his fingers, a nervous habit he had most of his life.

Stiles was prepared to have answers demanded. To have someone do something to fully give them away. Isaac looked ready to Wolf out at any second.

Stiles was expecting for shit to go down.

Panic.

Chaos.

Confusion.

Something.

Stiles was not expecting something silver to fly through the air and hit Peter on the forehead.

He was not expecting Peter to lose control over something so small.

Nor for his transformation to trigger three more within seconds.

And he definitely-

Definitely-

Wasn’t expecting Ari and Iggy to laugh.

He was, however, expecting Murphy’s Law.

So when the front door opened to his father, sporting yet another new bandage on his shoulder and moving stiffly, he could only sigh.

Right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I have messed with the Hales ages. Why? Because I wanted to. Yes, Peter is less than thirty and, in fact, younger than Laura. My story, my rules.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, now he felt really out of the loop.

Stiles braced for impact.

“Oh, that actually explains a lot.” The sheriff muttered as he entered the living room without removing his holster.

At least he didn’t draw his gun.

Stiles thanked the universe for small mercies.He didn’t think the already free to wolves would react well to weapons right now.

Wait…

“What?!” Stiles stared at his father shocked. “That’s it? ‘That explains a lot’? That’s your reaction to the current situation?”

“Uncle. Welcome home.” Ari said with a smile. “Join us. There’s Chinese.”

Stiles’ father smiled in return and made for the food. “Don’t mind if I do.” He grabbed a neck roll and turned to face the group. “So, I probably should’ve noticed this, huh?”

“You’re out of practice.” Iggy comforted.

“According to Papa, you were never very good at it anyways.” Ari commented with a laugh and got a mile square in return. Ari looked at his brother and nodded.  
The coin the younger had thrown flew through the air and back into his hand. He might something off the front. A little red smear that Stiles belatedly realized was his own blood. His thumb was also smeared. All four of the weres immediately lost their wolfy miens.

Iggy grinned and tucked the coin back into his pocket. “Aw, but they were so much cuter the other way. It’s the eyebrowlessness, I think”

Stiles stared at his cousin’s. “What the hell is going on?”

Peter lurched forward going straight for Iggy, claws out and eyes flashing. “What did you do?” He spat through a mouthful of fangs.

Iggy never even flinched as Stiles shouted in fear. Ari came out of nowhere, moving into Peter’s path protecting his brother. Suddenly, Peter’s arms were twisted behind him and Stiles’ father’s gun was out and cocked, trained on Peter steadily, in an instant.

“Now now, let’s not try that again, Peter.” Ari spoke quietly as he shoved the older man back towards Derek. “Return to your alpha before you do something stupid.”

Peter looked like he wanted to protest but he returned to dark side that trying anything else.

Ari sat down again, this time in the center of the couch. He was immediately joined by Iggy who shoved Stiles across to the left side of Ari while he sat on the right. Stiles felt his father moved to stand behind and to the left of him. His gun had been returned to its holster.

Ari nodded at Derek. “Red eyes,” he smirked “let’s talk this out.”

Stiles was expecting protest. Growls, yelling, flashy eyes, anything. Derek didn’t object, though. He immediately moved to sit across from Ari. No hesitation.

Peter glared, but moved to stand on Derek's left, Isaac fell into place behind and to the left of him. Scott looked lost for a moment but Allison nudged him into standing on Derek’s right before moving to the side and pulling Lydia with her.

Lydia started to protest but Allison cut her off of the shake of her head. She looked serious, Stiles was lost.

Ari and Derek stared at each other. For a few minutes, no one spoke. Stiles thought he might actually be the only one breathing which cannot be healthy but also made him feel very self-conscious.

He wanted to ask.

Questions burned under his skin.

He felt like he was choking on them.

At the same time he couldn’t speak.

Finally.

Finally the alpha male staring contest came to an abrupt halt. Derek nodded his head, or maybe he pouted, and Ari spoke. “This is not your entire pack I would think.”

“My remaining betas are elsewhere.” Derek replied, coolly.

“You are a small pack, though.” Derek didn’t reply. “Yours is a hereditary pack, I assume. They died in the fire.”

Not a question.

It did strike Peter and Derek like an arrow, though.

Ari continued, “Your alpha included. Neither of you were in line. You are enforcers. It must be difficult to rebuild the pack with a left hand and an enforcer made alpha. You’ve made interesting choices in your betas.”

“It wasn't planned this way.” Derek grumbled. Was he embarrassed?

“No, I imagine it wasn’t.” Ari glanced at Peter glared right back at him. “Planned or not you do have to deal with a bunch of turned teens. At least, I’m assuming that your remaining betas are the Miss Reyes and Mister Boyd that round out this motley crew.”

Stiles might have mentioned them a time or two in his conversations with his cousins.

Trying to seem normal, you know?

Look at me, I’m making friends.

Everything is fine.

These are not the droids you’re looking for.

“Though, if any pack style could handle such young members a familial pack would. I imagine neither of you had large hands in the raising and training of non-enforcer wolves. Tell me, if your entire pack was here would we even have enough room on your left?”

Ari glanced at Allison for moment. “I am interested in your pushing Scott the right.” She glanced over at Scott, unsure what to say. “It’s all right. I’m not saying it was wrong. Alpha Hale would have corrected it if you were. He is as close to a right hand as an untrained wolf could come.” He considered her for a moment. “It’s rare now to find Cursed Breeds allied with their hunters. Argent, correct? They do love their dominant females.” She was visibly startled.

Stiles couldn’t hold back anymore. “What is going on? Are you psychic? Is this a family thing? Am I supposed to be psychic? If so, can someone point me to the complaints office because I do not appreciate being ripped off.”

Derek and Isaac was staring at him like he had grown a second had. Scott looked like he was about to try to apologize for him, wouldn’t be the first time.

Peter just laughed. “I suppose that answers my question about your own ranking system. Though, I do question the place about one.” He nodded at Iggy who gotten offended look on his face.

“Excuse me? I could be his second if I wanted to.” He snarled.

“Ignacek, shut up. He’s not wrong.” Ari rolled his eyes and Iggy huffed, sitting back once more, arms crossed and pouting. “My second is not arrived in the area. Ignacek is…”He paused, choosing his words carefully. “Our storyteller, I suppose. Lore keeper, historian. Wladyslaw will be joining us sometime next week.”

Stiles interrupted again. “Seriously, someone want to let me in on this? Only, I sort of expected a very different reaction to the furry freak show.” Stiles hated being out of the loop. He glared at Ari. “What don’t I know?”

Better question, why didn’t he know?

Ari addressed Derek and Peter, ignoring Stiles. “Normally we try to keep things quiet until after the come into their powers completely. But then, normally, we don’t get wrapped in with a pack of wolves at 16.”

“And what are you exactly?” Derek questioned.

Okay, that was something. At least Stiles wasn’t the only one a little lost.

Ari chuckled. “Being that we didn’t know you were here? Nothing your pack has to worry about.”

“Yeah that, that’s not an answer.” The alpha growled.

Stiles silently agreed with him.

He wasn't about to interrupt Ari to say anything but yeah, he totally agreed.

“It’s all the answer you need for now. I’m not going to inform you before we have explained everything to Grzegorz. I think there are more important matters to attend to at the moment.”

“I don’t know,” Stiles blurted out “this seems pretty vital to me.”

“I expect it does. Judging by your desperate search for information on kanima bonding, however, I assume there is a slightly more pressing issue at hand.”

Right.

Jackson.

“It was a turn gone awry. Kid had more issues than my nephew expected.”

Lydia interjected, “Jackson’s master was killed less than a week ago. He’s been deteriorating ever since.”

“Girlfriend? So we’re talking about Jackson Whittmore.” Iggy noted.

Lydia nodded. Thankfully not questioning why Stiles’ cousin knew her boyfriend’s name. “We can’t keep him stable.” She pulled up the sleeves of her sweater to show the bandages on her arms. “He’s fine one second and the next…” She left it hanging. “We made an anti-venom that works but.”

“Kanima venom can adapt so be careful. It won’t work forever.” Ari reached out and touched the white bandage. “May I?”  
“It only happened a few hours ago.” Lydia said as she peeled back the gauze.

Ari nodded and touched arm gently, careful not to jar it hurt her. “Shallow. He had enough control to pull back, that’s good. Someone got him off you pretty quick.” Lydia’s eyes flashed over to Peter involuntarily. Ari nodded, recognizing her hesitance to acknowledge the older Hale.

“Didn’t seem like he was holding back.” Derek responded. “In fact, he seems less in control every time.”

“He’s right. Jackson normally tells me if he feels like he’s going to change. So I can get out in time.”

“How long, exactly, since his master died?” Iggy questioned.

“Six days.”

“He strong-willed,” Ari commented. “For him to have held his control so long. I imagine his connection to his master was tenuous at best.” He carefully rewrapped Lydia’s arm. “Has he killed?”

They all flinched at his bluntness. “Don’t look at me like that.” Ari frowned. “It’s a valid question.” He looked Stiles.

He nodded before finding his voice. “Yes, several times.”

“Okay, so returning him to his Wolf form is out.”

“What?” Peter and Derek stared at Ari. Derek continued, “he never was a Wolf.”

“He was, had to be. Kanima are secondary transformation. He had to be a Wolf first to become a kanima. Or, well, at least a cursed shifter.” Iggy commented.

Ari agreed. “He was a Wolf. Perhaps for days, perhaps seconds, but he was certainly a Wolf.”

“Wait, so can any shifter become a…” Scott asked.

“No. Born shifters cannot and the timeframe is less than a week post turning. You’re all safe.”

“The bite was being rejected.” Derek said, confused “I could see it. He was sick with it.”

“That may have triggered it, then. If he was strong-willed enough to fight the rejection. If he had enough emotional turmoil. It would also explain his ability to ground himself for so long.”

“Fight the…” Derek trailed off.

“Humans are flexible species. Enough willpower they can overcome most hurdles.” Ari sounded almost wistful.  
Half the room glanced at Lydia, wondering. Ari noticed. “What? Am I missing something?”

“I was bitten, by an alpha, but not turned. My body didn’t reject it though.”

“No, it wouldn’t have had to. Fae blood cannot be tainted that way. You cannot be turned, much like we –“ he waved casually to the three men around him “could not. The… Virus, for lack of a better term, would burn right out of your system. You can’t be Fae-kin and a cursed breed at the same time.”

“Fae blood?” Lydia whispered. “What does that even mean?”

“You didn’t know?” Iggy murmured. He looked at Ari. “She doesn’t know?”

Ari stared at Lydia, who shifted uncomfortably. “No, she doesn’t. My apologies, I made assumptions I should not have.”

“What you mean? Are you saying I’m not human?” Lydia tensed.

Stiles couldn’t hold his own tongue, “Are you saying we’re not human?!”

“Yes. But that is the point of discussion. We can discuss this later.”

“No! You can’t just tell me I’m not human and expect me to say oh, yeah, whatever.”

“Stiles.” His dad put his hand on his shoulder. “I know. We’ll discuss this later.”

“But…”

“Grzegorz, please. Later.” He stressed.

Stiles frowned, but settled back onto the couch.

Ari offered him a smile. “Okay, so Jackson. Where is he? I assume you don’t have him wandering around town.”

“Subway station.” Scott offered.

“Subway? Beacon Hills has a subway?” Iggy asked.

“Not anymore.” Stiles said quietly. “Wolf den now.”

“Your den is in abandoned subway station?” Ari raised a judgmental eyebrow.

“It’s temporary.” Derek muttered.

“I should hope so. So, your other betas are watching him?”

“Yes.”

“And these are not, years past turning, betas with high places in the pack.”

“You’d be right with that assumption.” Stiles muttered. “Scott is the oldest, then Jackson, Isaac, Erica, and Boyd.” Derek glared at him.

“At least tell me that you actually cast Jackson out of the pack.” Ari rubbed bridge of his nose tiredly. He wasn’t hopeful. Stiles could tell.

“He’s not a Wolf. He was never part of the –“ Derek started.

“No. Stop. Are you even listening? He was made a wolf. You turned him. He’s your beta, scales non-withstanding. If what Grzegorz said is true you left two lower-level betas in charge of a secondary beta. He won’t have quite the same pull is your first beta,” Ari gestured to Scott “but he still is a higher place in the pack hierarchy.”

“Actually…” Stiles interrupted earning yet another glare from Derek “Jackson is Derek’s first beta. Peter turned Scott.” Ari turned to stare at him. Stiles shrugged. “It’s a long story.”

“One we obviously don’t have time for the moment.” He stood abruptly. “We need to get Derek back. Jackson has control of the situation, not the other two.”

Derek’s phone rang “Erica.” He said as he checked the ID. He accepted the call. “What?”

“Oh, nice way to answer a phone.” Stiles muttered.

“What?!” Derek’s eyes flashed. “When? Where did he go? Stay put. I’m calling Deaton.” He looked Peter and pulled out his own phone and called the vet. Derek looked at Ari. “He’s gone. He overpowered Boyd and Erica wasn’t in the room.”

“Is Boyd all right?” Allison asked jumping up.

“Fine. Well, paralyzed. Anti-venom didn’t work this time. The kanima didn’t try to harm him though. Just a knick.”

“Enough to take him down.” Iggy murmured. “How long ago?”

“5-10 minutes max. He was in control when Erica went to grab dinner.”

“Okay, if he isn’t trying to do harm to anyone it means what he is after is a master.”

“Okay, but how would he know where to go?” Lydia questioned.

“The kanima thinks like Jackson. It is Jackson. Someone he trusts.”

“Um. Well Lydia’s here so…” Allison offered.

Peter shook his head. “If he could bond with her he would have by now.”

Stiles jerked. “Danny.” He dug out his phone and began to dial frantically. “He’s going for Danny.”

“Oh no.” Lydia whispered.

“Danny?” Iggy looked around for an answer.

“Jackson’s best friend.” Lydia explained, shooting off a text of her own. “He’s not answering.”

“Think. Where would he be at 9 o’clock on a Frid…” Stiles trailed off then shook his head. “Duh, Jungle.”

“How do you even know what Jungle is?” His dad asked suspiciously. “Also, isn’t Mahelani underage?”

“Arrest later, save now.” Peter scoffed. “We have a large venomous lizard –“

“snake.” Iggy interrupted.

“Snake man,” Peter rolled his eyes “about to enter a packed gay club on a Friday night.”

Stiles stared at Peter. “How do you know what Jungle is?”

“Okay, we can discuss sexual orientations later. Now is not the time.” Ari shook his head. “Where is Jungle?”


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny, the random abandoned subway station is not the strangest thing in this town...Just trust him on this one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's short, I know this. You'll get another chapter on Friday or Saturday.

“Anyone see him?” Stiles shouted over the music.

“No.” Scott shouted back before pushing through the crowd.

Stiles moved to do the same only to be stopped in his tracks. “Little lost lamb.”

Stiles was not short, but he definitely had to look up to see the face of the six foot four drag queen with his (her?) 5 inch heels. He coughed as he got a mouthful of feathers when a Boa hooked around him from behind. “Aw. He’s just precious.” Well, Stiles thought, there was that question asked and answered. He was, in fact, attractive to gay guys, drag queens at least.

He took a breath. Might as well ask. “Hi. You wouldn’t happen to know a Danny, would you? Um, tall, buff, really pretty in a manly sort of way. He’s Hawaiian…”

“Why Stiles, didn’t know you felt that way about me. Explains a lot actually. No straight guy is that desperate to know if is attractive to gay guys.” A voice came from behind Stiles’ new entourage.

“Danny!” Stiles shouted relieved. “Danny! I found you. Guys,” he shouted, hoping someone was close enough to hear him. “I found Danny!”

“Actually, I think he found you.” One of the drag queens said. “He gives an accurate description, though. You certainly are buff, pretty, and Hawaiian.”

A hand grabbed his shoulder causing Stiles to jump. “Well, good. You know what isn’t a good way to find someone in a gay club? The description muscular, young, and tan.” Ari drawled. The drag queens cooed. Stiles would certainly enjoy that later.

Iggy popped of the crowd, ruffled and “shirtless?” Yeah, Stiles hadn’t meant to say that out loud.

Iggy grinned. “Didn’t find Danny but I made lots of fun mistakes. Hello, ladies.” He greeted Stiles’ new crew. They tittered.

Danny was having a tough time not staring at Iggy. “Um, what’s going on?”

“Danny?!”

“Lydia? Allison?”

“Any sign of… Jackson?” Peter asked as he joined them, drink in hand. Scott and Isaac followed.

"Seriously," Stiles asked, "You stopped at the bar?"

"They make a great gin and tonic."

“Jackson?” Danny question staring at the group. Derek joined them a moment later. “Miguel?”

“No sign yet.” The alpha muttered.

“Miguel?” Scott, Lydia, and Allison said simultaneously. Stiles held back a laugh.

Iggy chuckled before turning to the confused drag queens. “Sorry ladies. I’m afraid were going out to take my cousin and his… Lovely… Friend” he winked at Danny “with us.”

Ari rolled his eyes. “Horn dog.” He gently push Danny and Stiles forward.

“Cousin?” Danny asked quietly. “Whoa, what is up with your family?”

“Yeah, yeah. Hot is apparently the gene I missed.” Stiles muttered. “Though, Derek is actually my cousin. Uh, Miguel that is.” He gestured vaguely “Iggy, the shirtless one, and Ari,  
the one with the emo hair, are. You met the middle brother in the fifth grade. Val.”

“I remember that.” His eyes got this sort of glazed look. “I really remember that.”

“Of course you do.”

“Were we going? What is Jackson have to do with –? He groaned to a halt as they left the club and Stiles’ dad was standing there. “Are you getting me arrested?!”

“Off duty, kid.” He offered. He turned to Ari and Derek “what now?”

“If he is here, he’ll follow Danny. We should head for the done.” Derek said.

“Hey, someone explain to me what exactly is going on here.” Danny said, clearly agitated. “Why was I the apparent cause research party? And where is Jackson?” He asked as he and Lydia were shoved into the back of Ari’s black car. Iggy joined them in the back wall Stiles to the wheel. “Seriously!”

“Okay, we will explain later on. We have to move right now.” Stiles said as he pulled out of the parking lot. “Believe me, you’re going to want some processing time.”

***

“Since when do we have a subway?” Danny questioned as he entered the den.

“It’s not worth questioning.” Stiles applied.

Deaton was packing up his back. “Vernon is fine. A little stuff, but the venom should finish wearing off soon.”

“Venom?!” Danny yelped. “What the hell?”

“Oh, I didn’t see you there Mr. Mahelani.” The vet said. “How are Butch and Cassidy?”

“They’re fine. The new distemper shot is done wonders.” He paused. “Wait, this isn’t about my dogs.”

“Oh you have puppies?!” Allison asked happily. “I didn’t know that.”

“Yeah, Bull Mastiffs. They’re hardly puppies. They’re six and massive.”

“Puppies.” Allison lifted her chin petulantly.

“Those dolls will never be anything but puppies.” Lydia scoffed. “Even Prada can boss them around.”

“Like mother, like daughter.” Stiles muttered.

“Someone should probably fill Mahelani in before he gets himself a new pet.” Peter said as he settled back into his seat. Derek and Lydia glared at him. “What?”

“Who wants to take this one?” Scott asked.

Stiles looked at Ari who stared right back. He sighed. His job then. “Alright then Danny-boy, how do you feel about werewolves?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally finished writing Embers! Now I just need to edit it up as I post and I have already started Fury (Book 2) Which is going to be a lot more grim. Of course you all still have a while left to go on the posting of Embers so enjoy that.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Insert vaguely witty summary line here.
> 
> Blegh. I'll figure it out later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been down with a migraine for over a week so i'm behind where i wanted to be but i haven't been able to edit. Also...midterms. Ew.

“So...that’s seriously Jackson? My Jackson?” Danny whispered weakly as Derek locked the door behind the newly re-captured Kanima. “My Jackson is a lizar-”

“Snake.” Stiles, Peter, and Scott chorused, sarcastically along with Iggy. Well, Stiles and peter had definitely been sarcastic, Scott sounded pretty ernest.

“Whatever, he has scales. Scales!” Danny shouted. The Kanima reacted immediately, slamming bodily against the door.

“Danny, calm down.” Lydia murmured. “He’s reacting to your distress.” 

“My best friend is fucking liz-- snake. Of course I’m distressed.”

“Danny. I get it. Believe me. I get it so much.” Stiles said as the clawing got louder. “But you have to keep your cool right now. There is always time to freak out after we get our shit done.”

“Dude, there is never time to freak out. Every time we figure out one thing something else comes up.” Scott said, startled. Right, honest Abe over here couldn’t even pretend. 

Stiles scowled at him before turning back to Danny and faking a smile. He didn’t look like he was buying. Damn. “Ignore him.” He tried. “I do.”

Danny frowned at him. “Are you fucking with me? This is all some sort of elaborate prank, isn’t it?”

“I knew he was taking this too well.” Iggy muttered to Val out of the corner of his mouth. Stiles sort of agreed. 

Twenty minutes ago when they had given Danny the fast and dirty run down of the current supernatural situation he had taken it like a trooper. No hesitation. He didn’t even flinch when Derek had done his thing and gone all wolfy. He had just accepted what they were telling him without hesitation. Stiles had been waiting for the other shoe to drop. No one, not even Daniel Mahelani, was that chill. And honestly, the freakout? Totally warranted. 

Couldn’t blame the guy one bit. 

“Mr. Mahelani. I know that this isn’t easy to come to grips with but you have to realize, the more upset you are the more you are exacerbating your friend’s rage. He thinks that you are in distress...injured. He can’t protect you from in there and that makes him very, very, angry.” Ari told him calmly as he led the teen to a nearby seat.

“Werewolves are real, my best friend is a freaking reptile who apparently thinks I’m its master, and I’m sitting in an abandoned subway station with…” He glanced around “The sheriff, the vet, a dead man, a bunch of classmates, and several strangers. Also,” He stressed “when the hell did beacon Hills have a subway?”

“Why is everyone always focusing on the subway thing?” Derek growled.

“Because its weird, Sourwolf.” Stiles snapped. He was quite certain that they had been over this before. “Like really, where the hell did this place come from? Not even the mayor’s son knew it existed.”

“Well, it wouldn’t be much of a hideout if everyone knew about it, now would it?” Derek sneered.

“That is a cop out and you know it, asshole.”

Ari ignored their bickering and focused on Danny who was staring at his knees looking like he was about to hyperventilate. “Just breathe.” He murmured, trying to soothe the younger man’s frayed nerves. “This is a lot to take in. You are doing so well. Just breathe. In and out.”

Danny relaxed slowly, tension releasing from his shoulders. The frantic clawing slowed and then stopped though they could still hear the low keening of Lizardman in the other room. Stiles heaved his own sigh of relief. It had been looking a little iffy on whether or not the door was going to hold against enraged man-sized reptile beast. Which was kind of terrifying when he considered that Derek had been planning to use that room to keep the betas next full moon. They would definitely have to rethink that plan.

Danny took one more deep breath before looking up at Ari. “Okay. I’m good. I’m calm.” he hesitated “Calmer. I’m less panic-stricken?” He shook out his remaining tension. “Its as good as I’m likely to get given the circumstances. I’m still not sure what you people want from me though.”

Not everyone could jump into the deep end without hesitation, Stiles thought. He had taken the whole wolf thing in stride. Better that poor Scott at least. Danny was at least on par with Lydia levels of post reveal freak-out. It was there but they could shrug it off until a more appropriate moment. One that would likely never come, but hey, at least they could compartmentalize.

Ari smiled at him. “Good. That is all we can ask. Now, as to what we want from you...it was not we that want it.”

“Right, Jax.” Danny ran a hand through his hair. “This whole master thing. Why me?”

“You will make him stronger.” Iggy says. Great. That is what they need, Jackson stronger. Maybe they should rethink this whole plan.

“And how’s that? I would think that one of these” He indicated the pack, “would be a better choice if he’s looking for strength.”

“He trusts you.” Ari told him. “You have known him quite a while, yes?”

“As long as either of us remember. Up until a couple of weeks ago I thought we told each other everything. Dammit, he could have told me. I could have helped him.” Danny jumped up from his seat and paced the floor. “Seriously, I don’t get why he didn’t say anything.”

“Protective instinct, probably.” Iggy shrugged. “You’re hardly safer now that you know. He probably didn’t want you getting involved. Too risky. Now he no longer has a say in the matter. You are the most stable bond he has.”

“He hasn’t spoken to me outside of school in weeks. That doesn’t sound like a very stable bond.” Danny interjected. “He obviously didn’t trust me to help him so…”

“Daniel.” Ari looked at him. “That is far from true. He does trust you, implicitly. You would do anything you had to to help him...including putting yourself in danger. Daehler may have gotten there first but even the Kanima would have seen you as a stronger bondmate. He was likely avoiding you because the kanima was trying to avoid bond interference. He might have hurt you if he allowed his bond to you to get in the way of his bond with his master.” 

Danny looked unconvinced.

Ari continued. “Now that his master is dead the kanima was finally on the same track as Jackson. His sexual bond with Ms. Martin confused the situation and kept him from seeking you out sooner but it couldn’t last much longer. Romantic attachment is no where near stable enough for a Kanima bond.”

“Why not? He’s been in Love with Lydia since she transferred in in the third grade. He was lucky he had me to keep him in check, he was worse than Stilinski. It was awful. He never stopped talking about her.” Danny rolled his eyes. “I would think that his strongest bond would be to her. Don’t get me wrong, I’d kill for Jax and I know that goes both ways but he definitely feels that way about Lydia too.”

“I have no doubt.” Ari said. “She couldn’t have sustained him so long if that wasn’t the case. It is the passion that comes with romance that typically destabilizes the bond in terms of what the Kanima needs. Passion clouds judgement and that is dangerous. Ms. Martin is far more likely to be lead by the Kanima than the other way because she is focused on Jackson’s emotions and his wants. As you said, you kept him in check even when you were young. You are more likely to do what he needs rather than focus on what he wants. You’re his brother, not his mate. Pleasing him is not your priority, protecting him is. You are older I would say.”

Danny nodded startled. “I went to kindergarten a year later because I got sick. I’m nearly 18. Two months.” Stiles had the feeling that that was for his father rather than part of his actual explanation.

Stiles’ dad obviously agreed because he raised an eyebrow at the teen and said “Two months or two hours, kid, still should be in a nightclub that is licensed as 18 and over.”

Danny frowned. “Whatever. It’s not my fault they don’t ID the guys they think are hot.”

“Unless you were literally pulled off the street and dragged into the club, your prerogative, your mistake. Someone with a criminal history should be more careful.”

“That was expunged. I have no record.”

“mhmm.” Stiles’ dad hummed and stared at Danny until he started shifting uncomfortably. 

Ari shook his head with a chuckle. “Not the time, Uncle Justek.”

“Please call me Tom. Please? Not even your Grandmother calls me that.”

“Justek is a great name and you should be proud.”

“Yeah well, I’m older than you, what I say goes.”

“I have a higher rank in the family. If you would like to argue this we most certainly could but I assure you I would win, Uncle Justek.”

“I’m the Sheriff.” He tried.

“Shall I call you Sheriff Stilinski then?” Stiles’ dad slumped. Yeah, he wasn’t winning that one. Stiles was curious now though. How exactly did Ari have a higher rank in the family than Stiles’ dad?  
Ari turned back to Danny, satisfied. “I’m actually surprised, I’ll admit, that Mr. Whittemore underwent the secondary transformation. The nature and quality of his bonds presume more stability than those we would typically see with the condition.”

“Is condition really the term to use here?” Allison asked.

“Do you have a better one?”

“Point.” She accepted.

“Not to be vain but, can we get back to me and the fact that Snakeson wants to bond with me?” Danny asked. “For one thing, is that even safe? What does this even mean? How will the bond effect us?”

“Snakeson,” Peter said “That’s a bit dull.”

Ari ignored him. “Some of those questions I can answer but some I have no way to know. I’m afraid, as much as I do know, Kanima are rare enough that personal accounts of the bonds are non-existent. There is also no real way to know how it will affect you two as individuals or given Mr. Whittemore’s beta status in the Hale pack.”

Danny nodded. “Yeah, I can see that. Whatever you can tell me would help though.”

“Well, as for the issue of your safety, do you plan to use him to lay waste to your foes?” Iggy asked with an inappropriate grin.

“What? No, of course not. Wait, I can do that?”

“Kid, your buddy is essentially a walking, talking, loaded gun. He’ll do whatever you want.”

“But, there are serious consequences for the misuse of a Kanima’s power.” Ari glared at Iggy. The younger man’s grin did not fade for even a second. He took joy from the strangest things. “If you use him to harm an innocent you will find yourself cursed.”

“The scales on Daehler.” Derek muttered. 

Ari nodded. “The master would fall, becoming less than their pawn. A kanima, weak and broken and unable to bond. He would have gone insane.”

Danny gulped. “So, I should just steer clear of getting him to kill anyone, right?”

“You could. Though there is as much punishment there as there is in killing.”

“What?” Stiles asked. “Why would the master be punished for not using the Kanima? Isn’t that the whole point of finding him a stable bondmate? To prevent more deaths?”

“Unjustified ones, certainly. But Kanima are difficult.”

“They are supposed to be more justice than vengeance” Iggy added.

“The point is that as long as the punishment is justified you would not be punished. That being said…”

“Shit. Nothing good comes after those words. It’s like we need to talk but worse.” Danny groused, taking his seat once more. “I think I’ll sit for this.”

“Letting justice fall will also come to punishment.”

“Meaning?” Allison asked.

“If he doesn't kill someone that he should have he will be punished as well.”

“Yeah, I figured it was something like that.” Danny murmured. 

Lydia sat next to him quietly for a moment before speaking. “So, this never ends then. Jackson has to keep killing for the rest of his life.”

Wow. Stiles might not particularly like the guy but that seemed sort of harsh for being a little rattled by finding out you were adopted. This Kanima thing got worse by the minute.

“The good news is that his pack didn't cast him out and judging by the feeling in this town less than fantastic beasts will be aplenty so justice can be done to decidedly less normal human targets.” Iggy told Danny. “Justice for the pack more than general justice so simply letting him be a beta enforcer should eliminate risk for any harsh punishment.”

“Well, that’s something.” Danny said weakly.

“It isn’t like you have to accept.” Peter said. “Don’t bond with him if you are too squeamish.” 

“Ignoring the problem won’t make it go away.” Ari snapped. “As much as I hate to pressure you, Jackson has no other options. We have no other options.”

“We certainly do.” Peter objected. “Give my five minutes in that room and I’ll have a problem solved and a matched set of boots and belt.”

“Killing the boy is not a valid option.”

“Without this one? It’s the only option. You said it yourself, he’s out of options. I mean we could let him suffer to insanity I suppose but I figured you for the more humane approach. Perhaps I was wrong?” Ari flinched.

“Look, stop. No one is killing Jackson. I’ll figure everything out.” Danny shouted. He sighed and licked his lips. Then he tried for levity “He’s not going to start eating my boyfriends, is he?”

“Well, I for one certainly hope not.” Iggy grinned lasciviously.

“Probably not.” Ari informed Danny.

“Probably?!”

“I would avoid dating assholes for a while, he’ll be a bit protective. Won’t take you getting yourself hurt well.” Iggy added.

“That narrows the field considerably.” Danny mutterd, mostly to himself. He turned to Ari and set his jaw. “What do I do?”

“Pardon?”

“How do I bond with him?”

“Carefully.”

“Ignacek.” Ari warned. “You have to bleed on him.”

“Excuse me?!”

“Sorry, he’s right.” Iggy pulled a...switchblade! What the hell?... out of Ari’s pocket. “Anyone got some hand sanitizer?”

“I could have gotten that myself.” Ari grumbled taking the knife back from his brother. “You know I hate it when you stick your hands in my pockets. It’s uncomfortable.”

“Well, try some looser pants, big brother.”

“I like my pants, thank you very much.” Ari accepted the alcohol wipe and iodine from Deaton who had immediately pulled open his bag. “As have several of your former playmates if I recall.” He grinned sharply at Iggy, wiping down the blade efficiently before handing it over to Danny who stared at it, sort of bewildered. “Meaty part of the hand won’t hurt as bad and will heal the fastest.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes.” Iggy laughed at the look of horror on Danny’s face. “Aw, come on pretty thing, don’t tell me a little blood scares you.”

Ari sighed. “It doesn’t need to be a lot of blood. Just a little. You need to grab Jackson by the back of the neck with the hand you cut. Go with the non-dominant one.”

“Like a momma cat carries her baby. Only not with your mouth. Though, I bet it would work.” Iggy butted in again. Ari clamped a hand over his mouth.

“It should only take a moment.” Ari finished. 

“Won’t that be a little, I dunno, tricky?” Scott asked. “What with the whole violent lizard beast thing.”

“Snake, and no, if he cuts himself out here and then goes in the Kanima should be more concerned with the wound itself than anything else. If you try to cut yourself inside he would try to stop you.” Ari explained to Danny who nodded.

“So just cut and grab. That’s it?” He asked suspiciously. Stiles couldn’t blame the guy, that seemed a little to easy to him as well.

“The bond already exists on the Kanima’s side it is only you that needs to accept it.”

“Nothing says 'I love you too, man' like a bloody hand print to the back of the neck.” Stiles joked.

Danny flinched slightly as he slashed the blade across the fleshy part of his left hand as Ari had told him. He clenched his fist forcing blood to the surface and allowed in to pool in his cupped hand. He nodded to the door and Derek opened it just long enough for the teen to dart inside before it was slammed behind him.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Blasted! Late again. Sorry, I've been caught up in writing book 2 which is already over 25,000 words and well, let me just apologize to anyone who plans to continue reading this series, I don't know when to shut up and I am still writing within the same day Embers is going to end on, This is why I'd never make it as a professional author (i mean, besides my total inability to stay focused on an original novel plot for more than a week). I am considering playing some catch-up during my spring break in two weeks, getting out a couple chapters instead of just the one or at the very least having a bunch on draft and edited so that it is just a matter of writing an AN and hitting post, that would probably help, huh?  
> But I digress, Enjoy!  
> P.S. if you catch a mistake, typo, plot mix up, name spelling issue, whatever please let me know, I suck at editing anything less fact based than a class essay so I am totally happy to have my idiocy pointed out to me. Thanks :)

It was quiet as they watched the door. There was no noise on the other side of the door either. Was that a good thing or a bad thing? Lydia broke the silence, “How will we know if it worked?” she asked Ari.

Iggy answered instead, “Simple answer? They both walk out of the room alive and without scales.”

“That is really it? Jackson will be back in control?”

“I’m afraid Mr. Whittemore will never be in control again.” Ari told them grimly. “Mr. Mahelani will be in control.” He sat down eyes still focused on the door. “Which means the boy will need training in how to control the Kanima. It is not in the Kanima’s nature to remain in human form or to distinguish orders from passing thoughts. Mr. Mahelani will need psychic training to learn how to control his thoughts.”

“Wait, the Kanima can read thoughts?” Stiles stared at his cousin. That was not in the books.

“The thoughts of his master, yes. Or more accurately, his emotions. Many of the orders that the Kanima will follow are never spoken aloud.”

“That might explain his excessively violent reaction to Peter lately.” Erica said. “If he was trying to bind with Lydia that would leak through, right?”

“Hm? Oh, yes. He is close to her so, even though she could not master him, he would pick up on her emotional state. eventually it will extend to entire pack and the allied. “ Ari said. “though he will not follow your orders he will become volatile around people or things that make anyone he considers pack, or close to, feel uncomfortable or vulnerable.” He looked thoughtful. “Teaching all of you to shield will probably be in your best interest he will need to be able to concentrate on Mr--”

“Seriously, call him Danny.” Stiles snapped. “it’s weird that you keep calling everybody by their last names. You aren’t that much older than us.”

“I am only two years younger than Mr. Hale, just older than Alpha Hale.”

“Exactly. so stop being so...weirdly professional around us. We are teenagers, dial back on the formality, its creepy.”

“If you insist.” Ari conceded looking around at the others who nodded in agreement with Stiles. Hah. Stiles knew he wasn’t the only one who thought that was weird. His cousin continued, “He will need to be able to concentrate on Daniel’s orders when in battle.”

“Do you have the knowledge to teach them?” Deaton asked. “I’m afraid I will be of little use. I was never able to work psychic magic. I know the theory but…”

“I know of someone who can help. I will call for them when they are needed, for now, theory is where we need to begin. And I can see what I can do to help Daniel and Lydia until they are capable on their own. Or, actually, Ignacek?”

“Yeah, I can handle her. whatever she is, she is more like me than she is like you. It would help if I had specifics though.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” Ari nodded. “You do what you can for now.” He turned to face the pack again “Daniel should have control of Jackson’s shifts if all goes well. He should not turn unless ordered or if his master is in trouble. Regardless, the Hale pack should be back up to five betas by the end of the night, albeit a bit more scaley than is typical and with the inclusion of his other half. Daniel and Jackson essentially make one Beta, granted, they will be an excessively strong one but that should come as no surprise given the state of your pack.”

“Are they really considered a beta? Jackson isn’t a wolf.” Scott questioned. “At least, not anymore.”

“He is, at his core. Unless their alpha casts them out or Daniel requests to be withdrawn from the pack, they are a beta entity.”

“You guys really need to work on your pack dynamics and heirarchy, though. I know you are tiny but remaining in such a lawless state is dangerous.” Iggy reached for a bottle of water. “You need a mini-fridge.” he remarked.

“See?” Peter turned to his nephew “He agrees with me.”

Suddenly there was a rap on the door and Derek opened it. Danny poked his head out “Clothes?”

Stiles tossed him a pair of shorts and a Beacon Hills Lacrosse Hoodie that they had set aside earlier. He caught them along with the sneakers that Lydia held out to him. He closed the door behind him.

“So, it worked then.” Stiles said. “Right?”

“Seems so. We’ll see.” Ari responded as the door reopened and Jackson strode out, scale-free, and moved to Lydia’s side. He immediately began checking her arm. “Are you okay?”

Danny joined them a moment later, watching Jackson carefully. Ari looked at him. “Daniel? Is everything alright?” He looked a little off.

“Yes, I think so. I just...it feels very strange. I can feel him in my head. Not Jackson, just the Kanima.”

“You would.” Ari offered him a smile which was returned. “As I was saying to the others, we will have to look into training you. Once you have some shielding it should feel less awkward.”

“Okay.” He replied gamely.

“Jackson, stop. I’m fine. How are you feeling?” Lydia questioned, prying her injured arm out of the other’s grasp.

“Less homicidal?” Stiles quipped. Everyone glared at him. “What? Too soon?”

“Yes.” Stiles’ father hissed at him.

“It is a valid question.” Stiles said. “Danny-boy could be harboring some deep-seated grudges that none of us know about.”

“I’m not.” “He’s not, idiot.” Danny and Jackson spoke simultaneously. Stiles would be concerned about that being a side effect of the bond if he didn’t know that they had been doing it since preschool. They were almost as bad as the Matthews twins in the second grade. They always spoke together dressed the same and answered to both their names, it had been freaky. No one had seen them since the fourth grade either. Stiles was fairly certain that those two had ended up in some serious long term therapy.  
Jackson growled at him from his place between his former girlfriend and his best friend. From the looks of the way Lydia was clinging to his arm Stiles doubted that the former thing would last very long.

Ari glanced him over “How are you feeling? Any residual issues?”

“I’m fine. Better, at least.”

“Good, that’s good. It will take some time to get used to the new bond. You may feel off balance for a few days.”

“Yeah.” Jackson stared at Ari. “Who exactly are you?”

“Ah, apologies. I am Grzegorz eldest cousin, Rajmund, and this is my youngest brother, Ignacek.” He indicated Iggy before reaching out to shake Jackson’s hand.

The teen accepted, bewildered. “Yeah, hi. Who’s cousin?”

“Apparently that’s Stilinski.” Danny told him.

Jackson turned to Stiles and started to smirk. “Seriously? Is that even a real name?”

“It’s Polish.” Stile muttered, annoyed. No one else had mentioned the revelation of his name. It had been too much to hope that Jackson would let that golden opportunity pass by.

“It means vigi--” Iggy starts. Stiles smacks him.

“Unnecessary information.”

“Vigilant Watchman.” Iggy continues, ignoring Stiles. “His is so much cooler than mine. Ignacek means Fiery, less awesome. Grzegorz has some weight to it.”

“Seriously? Gurzu-gosh? How do you even spell that?” Jackson snickered.

“G. R. Z. E. G. O. R. Z.” Iggy informed him, brightly.

Jackson just laughed. “Did you people just string some letters together?”

Ari frowned at Jackson, annoyed by his obvious glee. Well, at least Stiles wasn’t alone. “Ignacek.” He reprimanded his brother before speaking to Jackson. “I am unsure what is so amusing about our names.” He snapped. “I find your own name equally odd. The father that named you, his name is Richard, is it not? Then how exactly are you Jack’s son?”

Stiles stifled his own chuckle at Jackson’s look of confusion and slight insult. The other teen frowned “Its just my name, dude.”

“And Rajmund is simply mine, As Grzegorz is his and Lydia is hers.” Ari gestured around. “A name is a name. Your inability to pronounce it is your problem, not the fault of the name itself.”

Jackson frowned at him. “Whatever.”

“Anyways,” Lydia said breaking the tension. “Raj--”

“You may call me Ari if you so choose.”

“Thank you. Ari, then. Ari, is he okay now? Can he go home? School?”

“He should be fine for school by Monday thought letting him go home without supervision while the bond is still settling may be an issue.”

“If I stay with him for a few nights?” Danny asked. “If he has been staying here for the last week his Mom and Dad are going to start asking questions. They let him get away with a lot but not coming home for a week is a little much even for them.”

“If you are there, he should be alright. Make sure you have a way to reach Alpha Hale though, and myself. Grzegorz, text him my number. Though if I do not answer call Grzegorz and he can get me for you.” Ari smiled. Stiles quickly typed up a message to Danny on his phone including Iggy’s number as well, just in case. Ari continued, “Once he is back in familiar surroundings he should stabilize faster.”

“I’m stuck like this then?”

“Yes, though you need to embrace it, Jackson. From what I understand you did get what you wanted out of the deal.”

“Excuse me?!”

“Power. To be strong. The Kanima is strong. Stronger than the wolves even the only difference is that with that power comes a loss of control. Luckily you have your Daniel to deal with that.”

“But am I dangerous?”

“Absolutely.” Ari laughed. “Less than many in this room and more than others but we are all loaded guns here, Jackson. You are simply lucky enough to have a safety.” He indicated Danny. “Some of us are not nearly that lucky.”

“And yet you want to send him home.” Derek scowled.

“Well, we can hardly keep him from his parents. We will have to speak once he’s settled in. His parents need to know.” He glanced around the room. “All of them. I understand that you want to keep them safe but they will be safer knowing what to look for.”

Scott balked at that. Stiles knew that he has been adamant about keeping his mom out of it just as he has been, apparently uselessly, adamant about keeping his Dad far from the issue. SOme how stiles doubted telling her would go quite as smoothly as his father given that she was actually human and not some unknown like all of Stiles family was. He looked around the room. Erica looked nervous as did Boyd. Isaac frowned though he had no family left and Danny was tense as a wire.  
Derek is the one to speak however, “Getting more people involved will not help anything.”

“They are already involved, Alpha Hale. Their children are involved. If you honestly think that they do not know something is wrong you are kidding yourself.” Ari shook his head at him. “They need to know the truth. Even if it scares them.” He scowled at Derek and Peter both, “They should have known before you ever came near these kids with your teeth but it is useless to regret such things. They need to know the dangers of the situation and prepare to deal with the consequences. Their children have made mistakes and now those mistakes must be dealt with.”

“But you said it yourself,” Jackson barked. “We are all dangerous. You won’t even let me go home without Danny. We should be trying to keep the danger out of our homes. A gun is still a gun.”

“You are no more dangerous than the other beta’s, as I explained. You don’t have to control yourself and you can trust the one that controls you.”

“Stronger than the wolves, you said. That makes me dangerous.”

“As you would have been as a wolf. And honestly, with your thirst for power? As a human as well.” Peter rolled his eyes. He scoffed at his nephew’s glare. “What? I’m tired of teenage angst. He wanted to be a wolf. Threatened and bribed to get the bite. You are far too much my sister’s son to have not informed him of the consequences. You chose to become dangerous, Mr. Whitmore, your emotional instability doesn’t change your choice.”

“Peter, now is not the time.” Derek growled his eyes flashing.

“Really? I foresee no better time, actually.” He drawled. “This is your own fault as well, nephew. Turning teens, expecting them to act like adults.”

“You are the one who started turning teens, Peter.” Derek sneered. “McCall is your doing.”

“He is, I’ll admit to that. I’m man enough to admit my place in this mess, are you?” He raised an eyebrow. “I killed Laura. The only real alpha our family had left. I turned the puppy, dragged in the oddball, the redhead, and the huntress. I went for revenge against the Argents. What were your mistakes? Or do you still see yourself as being without flaw?”

“I did what I had to do.” Derek glared. The two Hales were circling each other menacingly. “I kept this pack alive. You tore us apart.”

“Your mistress tore us apart. Lit the match and burned us all away. Heartbroken child, miserable and afraid, a little love breaking down all your walls. You have no right to call yourself Alpha.”

“And you did?!” Claws were coming out now. “You and your vengeful arrogance? What good have you done for this pack?” Derek lunged and the two grappled for dominance. They tore at each other without hesitation.

“ENOUGH!” Ari barked. “This is why enforcers are not leaders. Not a lick of humility left between them.” Stiles watched as his cousin ripped the two wolves apart bodily, tossing them aside like ragdolls. That did not get any less freaky. “The two of you are going to destroy everything you have managed to rebuild. Petulant children! You complain about the teenagers that you have made pack? Look around you. Which of them is trying to tear the others apart?”

Derek made to speak. “No.” Ari stopped him. “Now is the time to listen. Neither of you has any right to call yourself Alpha. Unfortunately, it is what it is. Derek is Alpha of the Hale pack, deserved or not. Peter is once more the Alpha’s left hand. This…” He gestured around the room, “is your pack now, gentlemen. Whether you like it or not. Obviously there is bad blood between you. It is time to make a choice because this pack is depending on you. Either move past it or move on. You are each other’s only living family, will you stand together?”

The three of them stood facing off against each other. Stiles noticed just how quiet the room had gotten. It was like no one dared even breathe. Stiles stared as his father moved to stand next to Ari, his gun out and ready. What good he thought it would do him against wolves, stiles didn’t know but the tension ratcheted upwards once more. The sheriff spoke stiffly, “Rajmund, I think this is a discussion best left for a more private time.”

Ari glanced at him and softened immediately. “You are right, of course Uncle Justek.” He faced Peter and Derek once more, “My uncle is correct, we can continue this discussion once you have dismissed your Betas, Alpha Hale.” He stared at Derek, defiant. “I think it is time now for all the little wolves to return to their homes.” He cast his gaze over the group. “Snakes, humans, and unidentified faelings as well, please.”

“Leave.” Derek barked. The group grumbled but began gathering up their things to leave. Isaac glanced around confused. Stiles immediately realized that the other teen had been staying with his alpha and didn’t know if the order applied to him.

“Hey Isaac, you can hang out at my house tonight, Mom is working the late shift anyways.” Scott offered. Stiles smiled when the teen nodded obviously relieved. He would have offered, himself, but they were sort of out of bed space in the Stilinski household at the moment. As it was, he was probably going to get dumped on the couch once Val arrived.  
Stiles felt his father nudge him toward the exit. Iggy was already gone, as were the rest. Only Ari, Derek, Peter, Stiles, and the sheriff were left inside. “Come on kid, time to head out.”

Stiles looked at Ari, “Isn’t he…”

“I won’t be long, Grzegorz. It’s getting late and we will have a long day tomorrow. You should get some rest.” Ari didn’t look at him but Stiles felt the hidden order in his calm words.

“Yeah,” he replied, hesitantly, “Okay. Just…can we try to avoid bloodshed? Or at least keep it to Peter?”

“There will be no blood spilt here tonight…not even Mr. Hale’s.” Ari chuckled.

“Sure. Right. See you at home then.” Stiles muttered as he followed his father out the door.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Of gingersnaps and relevations

“Why are you so good at this? I have spent countless hours perfecting my skills. Is this an apparently-not-human thing? If so, how do I tap into the supernatural Halo skill set?” Stiles whined as his character died on screen for the tenth time.

Iggy laughed “Sorry, Stiles. I’m afraid that is a purely grade-A natural Iggy Stilinski skill.”

The front door clicked open causing both cousins to look. Ari walked in and tsked, shaking his head. “I thought I told you to get some rest?”

Stiles scoffed, “Yes, I was definitely going to go to bed like a good little boy. Do you even know me?”

“I suppose it was too much to hope that the evening’s shocks would wear you out.” He settled onto one of the arm chairs.

“Probably.” Iggy said as he turned off the console. Apparently they were done with video games for the evening…morning. Stiles looked at the clock and realized that it was nearly 3 am. He was surprised to realize that he wasn’t even remotely tired.

“Could I convince you to go to bed now?” Ari asked hopefully.

“Sorry, no.” Stiles set his controller on the coffee table. “Afraid I’m not even a little bit ready for bed.”

“Of course not.” Ari sighed. “Would it matter if I said that I wanted to go to bed?”

“Umm, do you want the honest answer or the good little cousin answer?”

“Nevermind.” Ari stood again and rolled his shoulders. “Go make me coffee and I’ll go change. I suppose this as good a time as any to explain. As long as you don’t mind Uncle Justek not being involved. I know he works tomorrow so I will not wake him for you impatience.”

Honestly, Stiles would prefer to leave his father out of it for the moment. He had a sinking feeling that there was going to be a lot for him to process without having to deal with his dad’s potential censoring. He had realized that he was probably still too young to have this explained to him, at least by the family’s standards. “I’m okay with that.” Ari nodded and headed for the stairs.

Iggy glanced after him before looking at Stiles. “Kiddo, I’m heading to bed. This is something that should really be one on one with Ari. He wouldn’t suggest it but, that is the way it’s always been done and I don’t think that we should forget about tradition completely just because of…extenuating circumstances.” He smiled “I wouldn’t be much of a Lore Keeper if I did.”

Stiles hesitated. He was suddenly less sure that he wanted to know, period. “Yeah, okay. See you in the…later in the morning.”

Iggy hugged him tightly. “Don’t worry about it. Ari knows what he’s talking about. Just…” He sighed and stared into Stiles’ eyes. “Listen to him, okay? Let him speak. Don’t question it. There will be time for questions later.” Stiles nodded. “Now, go get that coffee going. He was definitely serious about that.”

Stiles nodded and headed into the kitchen and began filling the coffee pot. He also pulled out the last of the snickerdoodles and began to eat. He stared around the kitchen feeling twitchy, like his skin was too tight. He began pulling out ingredients for ginger snaps. He spent the next few minutes sifting dry ingredients and chopping up candied ginger. He needed to be doing something or he was going to go insane. Stiles wasn’t sure how much time had passed but he nearly sent the kitchen knife flying when Ari cleared his throat. “Jesus! What the hell?!”

“Sorry.” Ari smiled at him calmly sipping his cup of coffee. So, long enough for that to be done, then. Ari had changed into sweats and a slightly ragged Harvard t-shirt from his undergrad years. “Are we planning to feed an army or proceed with some werewolf behavioral re-training? I have to say given the last couple of hours I would definitely be down for helping out with that particular cause.”

“Conversation with Sour and Snarky Wolf not go well?” Stiles asked as he offered the older man an unchopped piece of ginger.

“About as well as could be expected given the circumstances. I think I managed to dissuade them from killing each other at least.” Ari chewed the sugar crusted root happily.

“Well that is better than I imagined that going so kudos to you, cousin.” Stiles let the elder take the knife from him and began mixing up the first batch of batter.

“Hm, I can’t imagine why you would think I would struggle.” Ari rolled his eyes sarcasm practically seeping through his pores. He sighed, “The praise should really go to you, as I understand it. I don’t know how you have managed to keep the pack together with tweedle dead and tweedle dumbass at the reigns.”  
Stiles looked at him startled. “What do you mean? I haven’t done anything besides head butt a lizard.”

Ari’s laughter came out as a sharp bark. “Yes, I heard. Quite the tactical mind you have there.”

“It was instinct I tell you, instinct!” Stiles grumbled.

“Oh, I have no doubt it was. Just as it would be…what do you call him?...Evil Undead’s instinct to lash out at a potential threat without thought for himself.”

“I think you’ll find two issues with that statement.” Stile replied as he put the first batch of cookies in the oven.

“Oh?” Ari scooped the last bit of chopped ginger into a glass bowl.

“The first is that you are implying that the Corpse Snide has non-self-serving thoughts.”

“How many of those names do you have?”

“You have no idea. The second issue is your implication that I had any thoughts other than must not get dead in mind when I made that particular decision.”

“If you weren’t you, you would know different in both cases. You and Peter are more alike than you care to think.”

“Take it back! Take it back right now!” Stiles snapped.

“The truth hurts sometimes.” Ari shrugged and leaned against the counter to watch as Stiles cleaned up the cookie making work zone. “You’ll find that it is hardly an insult for me to say that. The Peter you have seen and the Peter that he was and will return to are very different men.”

“Look, I get it.” Stiles slammed the bowl he was holding back onto the counter and glared. “He’s nuts. He snapped because of the fire. He didn’t know what he was doing. Whatever, I’ve heard it all.”

“Grzegorz, I’m not condoning what he has done, far from it but there are things about this situation that you don’t yet understand…”

“No, I don’t. I don’t understand him killing his niece. I don’t understand turning my best friend or trying to turn Lydia. I don’t understand him resurrecting himself at the expense of Lydia’s sanity. I don’t understand. I don’t fucking want to.”

“No, I imagine you don’t. You are…biased in this.” Stiles glared metaphorical hackles raised. Ari held up his hands peaceably. “Understandable. I don’t fault you for it. I would be the same were it my friends on the line. I am not asking you to understand him, to like him, or even to stop hating him. I would not ask that. It would be a fool’s errand. All I am saying is that some things cannot be changed, and some things happen because they must, whether we like them or not.”

“Fate? Destiny? That’s what you’re saying, right? The Hales were supposed to die. Laura was supposed to die. Scott is meant to be a wolf, Peter was meant to return from the dead. Sorry, if I’m skeptical. If fate was a thing Peter would have just stayed dead.”

“You would think that.”

“Well, am I wrong? You’re talking like nothing could be changed but something huge was changed was it not?”

“It was.”

“Exactly! So don’t talk to me as if there is something okay about…”

“Stiles! Did I say that you were correct in your assumptions? I did not. You are not. Peter was resurrected only because he was never meant to die. For all that he thinks he knows, that ritual would never work if the deceased was meant to be deceased.”

“What does that even mean?” Stiles sighed heavily. He sunk down to the floor and sat, back against the cabinets and rubbed his temples. “You are saying that fate is real but that not everything that happens is fate. Doesn’t that mean that fate isn’t real at all?”

“Stiles…Grzegorz…you still have a child’s view of the way the world works. I commend you for maintaining that view despite everything you have been through.”

“If it is naïve to think that a murder who had his throat ripped out should stay dead…maturity isn’t all it cracked up to be.”

“You won’t hear me disagree.” Ari pulled the finished gingersnaps out of the oven and turned off the heat before sinking down to join Stiles on the floor. He looked around and wrinkled his nose. “When was the last time one of you swept?”

“Feel free to do it yourself, consider it rent.” Stiles scrubbed his hands over his face. “For now, let’s just agree to disagree about Evil Undead. I think we have more pressing matters at hand. It’s not like wishing it had never happened will turn back time and poof, redheaded psycho-wolf.”

“No, you are right about that. Not even we have the right to change fate’s plans.” He sighed. “Especially not we.”

“But, can it be changed at all?” Stiles questioned. “Because a lot of shit has gone down in the last couple of months and it seems like we keep on making it worse every time it starts to get better.”

“Don’t think that way. Things are not easy for you all and they never will be but it is not a matter of choice. YOu are kids. It wasn’t your job to make the decisions you have had to since January.”

“So, you are saying that we haven’t changed anything?”

“Oh no. your friends have changed everything, Grzegorz. Nothing is the same as it was and nothing will ever be the same again. What I am saying is that they are allowed such things. Free will makes it so.”

“So what it the point of fate if we can change it however we want whether it leads to good things or massive piles of regret.”

“Grzegorz.” Ari sighed. “Humans have some distinct differences when it comes to fate. Humans can make things work to their advantage no matter what issues they cause for themselves by disregarding what should be for what could be. Call it an advantage, call it a folly, it is what it is.”

“Humans? As opposed to non-humans?” Stiles figured that his cousin was probably not referring to dogs or goldfish. And he had the worst feeling that His family was not being included in the human category either. “Like supernatural creatures and stuff?”

“Well,” Ari hesitated “That depends.”

“On what?” Stiles could hear the whine in his voice and could not bring himself to care.

“On the kind you are referring to.”

Stiles rolled his eyes. “Werewolves?”

“Human, all of their kind of shifter are.” He smiled at him “Yes, that includes Kanima.”

“Are there non-human shifters?”

“We’ll get there.”

“Okay,” Stiles thought for a moment. “What about witches or druids, whatever you call them?”

“Human. Separate things though, for reference.”

“Really?” Stiles asked curiously.

“Very much so as I’m sure your vet friend would let you know, loudly and with many angry gestures.” Ari chuckled.

“Don’t get along then?”

“Not even a little.”

Stiles paused for a moment the real question sitting, burning, the tip of his tongue. He still wasn’t sure he wanted to know. Out of curiosity he asked “Are vampires a thing?”

“Of course. If there is a myth about it it probably bears some truth.”

“Cool. Are they human or?”

“That is slightly more complex an answer. There are two types of Vampires, as you know them, those that call themselves such and the Sanguine.” Ari paused. Stiles nodded at him to continue. “The Vampires, Nightwalkers as we call them, are human. Turned or from a line of turned humans.”

“And the Sanguine?”

“Are a Fae species.”

“As are we.” Stiles murmurred.

“Yes.”

“Like elves and shit?”

Ari laughed. “Yes, Elves and shit. There are many kinds of Fae.”

“You call them species, most would say races.”

“Most would be incorrect.” Ari said. “Humans have races or breeds, as most Fae refer to them, one species, many types. The Fae-kin are well…” He thought for a moment. “Comparing a sanguine to, say, an elf is like comparing a hamster and a goldfish. The fact that they are sentient and existing are about the only things they have in common with each other. Separate species.”

“Oh.”

“Some Fae species do have breeds though. Variants of a norm and others branch from the same ancestors.”

“An evolutionary family rather than a single species.” Stiles said “Like Homo sapiens sapiens and Homo erectus and the chimpanzee.”

“More the chimpanzee than Homo erectus given that the species we refer to are not extinct.” But he smiled at Stiles. “But yes that would be the general idea.”

“So...what are we?”

“Ah, that is not a simple answer, Grzegorz.”

“Why not?”

“Because we are something else entirely. What I am and what you are are very, distinctly, different things.”

“We are related though, how can we be different species?”

“And that is where the analogy fails us.” Ari looked thoughtful. “I suppose we could all call ourselves a single species of Fae, the Warriors? But each of us may be different species of fae. Genetics and magicks make strange bedfellows in our case.”

Stiles thought for a moment “So, wait. Let me see here. Fae differ from humans at the Kingdom level? or the Phylum level? If we were to use the classic classification system, I mean.”

“I suppose it could be either.”

“Well if we say that Fae are a Kingdom we could say that our kind is a Phylum. or maybe further down perhaps class? Animalia Chordata Mammalia Fae Warrior blank blank?”

Ari laughed brightly. “Sure. We’ll go with that.”

Stiles grinned at him. “I’m good.”

“Don’t get cocky it is still flawed. How would you deal with Lamia or Mers? Reptiles and fish, not mammalian.”

Stiles slumped. He hadn’t thought about that. “So those are Fae then.”

“Yep.”

“I give up.”

“So did we.” Ari laughed. “ Scholars kept trying for a classification system and then some new thing throws a wrench in the works. We typically just go with-” He waved his arms around oddly “Wooooo magicks...shhh...don’t question it.”

Stiles choked on his laughter. “So, science isn’t a big thing then.”

“No. We use it and appreciate it but magicks makes the world a little more complicated than what science has managed so far. Though, some of the Fae species are very invested in furthering it to our advantage.”

“That’s cool.” And it was. Supernatural scientists. Kind of awesome actually.

“We’ve gotten a bit off track though.”

“That is what I am best at.” Stiles joked. “Did I tell you about my Econ final last semester?”

“No, but your father certainly told mine. The history of male circumcision? Really?”

“Totally worth it to see the look on coach’s face when he got it.”

“Such a child.” But he laughed along with him. They enjoyed a few moments before Ari sobered. “We need to get back to the point, sadly.”

Stiles nodded. “Yeah. Lets bring it back around. So, we are Fae.”

“We are.”

“And Lydia.”

“Yes.” Ari said. “Her blood is diluted though so it is difficult to say what kind she actually is. I haven’t seen her powers but only a few species have been known to breed with humans. Well and whatever we are. Our kind breed with humans more often than not.”

“Why is that?”

“Honestly, we are not well liked among the Fae. They don’t often want us sullying the bloodlines.”

“Sullying? Seriously?”

“There is no guarantee that a child would be the right species. ANd some of our bloodlines are just plain odd. Like ours, only the males of our family turn out Fae, given that the breeding partner is human. Other families it is the opposite and others are completely random. The blood doesn’t dilute either. There were cases in our family that a branch had nothing but 100% human daughters for generations and then suddenly a son and he’s a Fae Warrior.”

“Okay, so like Dad and Uncle but not Auntie.”

“Right, and all of us and Aron eventually, but not Kasia.”

“Weird.”

“It is. No one has figured out why either. Or why other families have such different inheritance mechanisms. Some argue whether or not we can even be considered a Fae species at all. But that is what the fates call us so we go along with it.”

“What are we? You’re as strong or stronger than Zombiewolf, but I’m certainly not. WHy are we so different?”

“And this would be the issue so many have with us. I don’t know what you are yet. In comparison with the Fae Species, I mean. You are Warrior like all of us are but you could be anything. Like Lydia, I haven’t seen what you can do yet.”

“What are you?”

“Whatever I need to be.”

“And there it is.” Stiles muttered. “Some of that good old-fashioned supernatural crypticness. WHy is it so hard to just answer a question for you people? You, and Deaton, and even Evil Undead, and Sourwolf. It is ridiculous.”

Ari laughed at him. Jerk. “Well, I can’t answer for them but let me ask you this, Grzegorz, you ask me why i can’t simply answer a question, have you ever told a lie? A real lie, I mean.”

“Duh, who hasn’t?”

“Really? Have you? You have said something to yourself or to another that has no single grain of truth in it.”

“Well, everyone knows that the best lies are almost entirely true.”

“They are. Politics, talk your way around the truth, say nothing or say anything but never, ever lie. Lies will get you caught. Think again, Grzegorz, name one time you have straight up lied.”

Stiles frowned. “I told Danny that Derek was my cousin, Miguel.”  
Ari raised an eyebrow. “Why would Grzegorz Stilinski have a cousin named anything even close to Miguel?”

“Not the point.”

“Sure. But okay, Miguel the werewolf cousin, got it.”

“Well, obviously I didn’t mention the werewolf thing.”

“Of course.” Ari chuckled.

“Shut up. I proved you wrong though, I’ve lied.”

“The Cursed Breeds, Supernatural Humans, are considered the Fae’s cousins. Their Curses typically stem from the Fae or are modeled after the Fae, The Nightwalkers for example.”

“Sure fine, but I didn’t know that, so still a lie.”

“Right, just like I’m sure you had no clue that Derek’s middle name is for his paternal grandfather, Miguel Corderro.”

Stiles stiffened. What the fuck? “No, I didn’t.”

Ari’s smile was a little smug. Stiles knew that his face was probably a little tight. Ari lost his smile seeing the look on Stiles face. “Grzegorz, I didn’t mean to freak you out.”  
“Well what did you expect? Was it a coincidence?”

“Unlikely.” Ari admitted.

“So, what? I’m Psychic now?”

“Equally unlikely. Though, i am guessing you may prefer that idea to the truth.”

“Which apparently I always speak.”

“All Fae do. We can’t lie. Not even to ourselves. That’s just the way it is. I mean you can try but you will look like a total idiot. Fae have more tells when lying than the rest of the world combined. It hasn’t affected you until now, has it? Don’t freak out over something that has always been true.”

“But I didn’t know it was true, Rajmund. Knowledge of the thing affects a person a lot more than simply its existence.”

“No, I get it.” Ari said. “I do. It’s just that this? The lying thing? That is sort of the least terrifying thing I have to tell you today.”

Shit. Would it be wrong to back out now?

“This is why we wait until we’re 18 before getting into this stuff.”

“Does it actually get less freaky if you are 2 years older?” Stiles wondered.

“No. No it really doesn’t. It mostly just gives us more time to prepare. We would normally know more about who and what you are by then. I mean, we already know more about you than we would about most but…”

“Yeah.” Stiles got it. He definitely wished he didn’t but he totally did. “So we can’t lie.”

“Right, which means that we have had to learn a few tricks.”

“Talking in riddles.”

“Yeah.”

“Doesn’t explain the apparently human supernaturals in my life that can’t answer a question for the life of them.”

“No, though Druids used to work with the Fae for a long time so some of that could have rubbed off on them and in turn other breeds.”

“Ugh. Well, it’s seriously annoying.”

“It really is.”

“Is there a reason?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why can’t Fae...we...lie? I mean there has to be an actual reason for it.”

“This is the part you will hate the most, Grzegorz. It is the part that is most disruptive to the way we have grown up seeing ourselves.”

“Does it matter? It is what it is. This isn’t anything new, right? It is something I have been dealing with subconsciously my entire life.”

“It is.” Ari looked away, shifting uncomfortably. “That doesn’t make it any easier to deal with.” He refused to meet Stiles eyes and that chilled him to the core.

“It scared you.” Stiles whispered. “When they told you the truth, you were frightened by it.”

“I was. As were Ignacek and Wladyslaw. It is not an easy thing to deal with.”

“Then why do we have to know?” Stiles snapped. “If we have been following these rules without knowing until now why do we have to understand it?”

“It is something central to being Fae and more importantly it directly impacts what we do. Remaining ignorant to the reality does no one any good.”

“And this job or whatever will get easier once I know.” Stiles guessed.

“No. God, no. Grzegorz, you have to understand this…” Ari forced Stiles eyes to meet his. His gaze was intense. Stiles had never wanted to turn away from someone, something,so badly in his life. He wasn’t allowed to. “Nothing gets easier after I tell you this. Everything you are, everything you have ever hoped to be, everything is about to become so much harder. Like nothing you have ever known.”

“I don’t want to know.”

“No one does.”

“Please.” Stiles begged faintly. “Please just don’t. Everything is hard enough as it is, Ari. I don’t know that I can handle anything else.”

“I’m sorry.” He hugged Stiles close as if he was trying to hold him together. Stiles tensed and tried desperately to pull away. He wanted to run and leave whatever truth was so terrifying far behind him. Ari whispered it. Right next to Stiles ear he whispered, “Fae don’t have free-will.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am going to plan on a chapter everyday next week (Or at least four chapters, we'll see how it goes) during my break because I have a good chunk of book two written now as well so I'm not worried about being able to continuously post after this book is done. Usual applies, see a mistake let me know because I keep finding them which makes me sad.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day one of daily posting, Let's see how this goes.

Stiles couldn’t breathe.

_“Fae don’t have free-will.”_

His insides were twisted up into knots and he really, really couldn’t breathe.

_“Fae don’t have free-will.”_

His head was spinning, his mind racing, and he honestly could not breathe.

 _“Fae don’t have free-will._ ”

Ari was right, he thought faintly, nothing will ever be okay again. The world as Stiles knew it was falling apart and he just couldn’t breathe.

“Grzegorz? Stiles please, you need to breathe.” But he didn’t want to. That was free-will, right? Ari was wrong. He didn’t want to breathe and he wasn’t. His decision. His fucking choice. His fucking ch…

He took a deep shuddering breath.

No, he thought, he didn’t. His body took a breath for him. He hadn’t been close to out of breath yet. He had been so concentrated on not breathing. It didn’t matter what he wanted. Stiles felt tears pooling. This was not okay.

“This is not okay” he whispered. “I’m not okay. None of this is okay.” His voice rose shakily. Louder and louder with every word but never loud enough to drown out the pounding in his ears. “No! What the fuck does that mean?” He shouted.

“Hush, People are sleeping.” Ari said running a hand through Stiles’ short hair.

“Like I fucking care!” He barked, yanking himself out of his cousins arms. He scrambled away, hyperventilating. “Like I care that people are sleeping! What the hell do you mean, fae have no free-will?”

“Grzegorz, calm yourself.”

“Oh no. I am so far past the ability to calm myself right now, you have no freaking idea.”

“Believe me, I do. I went through the same thing, didn’t I? And then I had to tell my brothers and then guess what? I get to tell Aron someday as well. This job is mine, like it was my Dads and our Grandfather’s. I get to be the one who scares the people I care about most out of their minds, Grzegorz. I get the privilege of flipping world after world on its head and then someday I get to be the one to pass the job on to one of our sons.” Ari hissed, angrily. “I get to relive this feeling over and over again. I get to be the one to hold all of you together until you realize that your world might be entirely different now but nothing has changed. Nothing.”

“Everything has changed, Rajmund. Not one thing has not changed. This isn’t...its not…” What? What was he even trying to say? It wasn’t true? Its not happening? Stiles felt wet hot tears flowing down his cheeks and could begin to care. He hadn’t cried since the day he watched them bury his mother. Not one tear. It was like they were all coming at once now.

He didn’t want to believe that Ari was telling the truth but even if he didn’t now know that Fae could not lie he knew...Ari never lied. Ari always told the truth. Even when it hurt other people. Even when it hurt himself. Ari never hid from reality. Never pretended. And he never would.

Still… “I don’t belie-” His words caught in his throat. He coughed wetly, tried again “That’s not tr-tr-” Nothing. He couldn’t say the words balanced on the tip in the tongue. He couldn’t say it wasn’t true or that he didn’t believe it because it was and he did. He was dying inside but he believed it, he knew it was true. And he couldn’t lie.

He struggled to breathe, his heart pounded in his chest. His vision was blurred, hazy, Ari was there trying to keep him calm. It wouldn’t work, Stiles knew. This was a panic attack. He hadn’t had one in nearly four years. His meds were long gone too. They would have to wait it out. That was fine. He just felt sort of floaty right now. That was better than scared. He knew the feeling too well. Felt himself falling away as the world distorted.

“Grzegorz? You need to breathe.” Ari’s voice was muffled. It sounded like he was under water. More tears streaked down his cheeks, They felt like acid against his skin. Stiles was drowning.  He felt a hand against his lower back, like a ghost. It pushed him down. Another hand helping him pull up his knees so he he could tuck his head between them to steady himself, a mockery of the fetal position.

The hand moved to the back of his neck, rubbing softly. Stiles panicked, clawing wildly, despite knowing that is was only Ari. Ari needed to stop touching him, now.  He did not want to be comforted. “Calm.” The older man whispered, “Calm, cousin.” Stiles flailed again and failed to break his hold. He slumped weakly into Ari’s arms. “Hush, love. You’re okay. Nothing has changed. You’re okay.”

He could say that but it wasn’t really true. Technically, Stiles supposed, it was exactly correct and not a lie but...not a lie certainly didn’t make it a truth. Nothing had changed. Everything is exactly as it has always been. Stiles’ whole world had been flipped on its head but its okay, because nothing has actually changed.

He was being rocked in his cousin’s arms, he recognized, like a child, wet with tears and shaking like a fucking chihuahua on speed. Ari was murmuring nonsensically in his ears in his ears trying to comfort him, surrounding him. Stiles was tall. Ari was taller. Stiles was completely enfolded, protected. Ari always protected him. It wasn’t so easy when the danger was inside, when it was something like this. Ari could do nothing for him here. Just like he couldn’t protect his brothers and how he wouldn’t be able to protect Aron when the time came for him. His heart broke for the older man.

Ari cared...too much at times. Enough for Stiles to know that  having to be the messenger of this would kill him inside. He cared and it wasn’t his choice. He didn’t choose this path, just like Stiles hadn’t, but he was making due, holding Stiles together with one hand and balancing the freaking world on the other. He was stronger than Stiles could even hope to be.

Every last moment of their lives had been planned, out of his hands. All the hard choices he had had to make in the last couple months had hadn’t had to make at all. Someone else pulled the strings. Jesus Fuck, what kind of sick freak was making him dance? All those pretty ideas of giving your life over to someone’s plans and being led down a path of joy. Was he the one that got the short end of the stick? Was there some other Fae out there living a happy fluffy life while he was dealing with werewolves and psychos and hunters and Kanima and learning that he has control of exactly nothing in his world. What did this make him? A puppet? He felt…”Sick. Gonna hurl.” Stiles jerked out of Ari’s grasp and barely made it to the bathroom in time before chinese food and mountain dew came spewing out to rejoin the world.

He stumbled out again nearly an hour later feeling weak and worse for wear. On the upside, the fuel tank was now on empty so no more puking was physically possible. However, he was fairly certain he had upchucked an entire week’s worth of meals and he should really check in with a doctor because his digestive system was not working properly if that much was left more than 6, active, hours after he last ate.

Ari was pulling another batch of gingersnaps out of the oven. Stiles started to laugh. He couldn’t help it. Ari stared at him, a small smile on his face, “What?”

“PTB have some interesting priorities, huh? Given that they aren’t around to consume them.” he said, nodding to the pans.

Ari laughed. “Oh, Grzegorz, your ginger snaps are at the top of everyone’s priority list, tangible or otherwise.” He offered a cookie off the cooling rack. Stiles chuckled again as he imagined some big bad power pulling just the right string to get that cookie into the air. Equally terrifying and hilarious. Didn’t they have anything better to do?

“Will you tell me?” He asked, taking the cookie. Ginger settled the stomach, right?

“Anything you want.”

***

Stiles sat crosslegged on the couch, back against the armrest with Ari mirroring him on the other side. A plate of cooled snaps sat in between them and Stiles cradled a hot mug of peppermint tea in his hands. Ari sipped one of his dad’s beers and stared at him, waiting for him to make the first move. Stiles thought, “I don’t know what to ask. Is that weird?”

“Not at all.” Ari smiled. “The...PTB as you say, tend to let us fend for ourselves for this sort of conversation.”

“So we can have free will if they let us.”

Ari frowned. “Don’t get your hopes up. They aren’t likely to give up control willingly. They can be gentle with us sometimes though and that is the best most hope for.”

“Great.” Stiles stared at his hands. “ I still don’t know what to say. This would actually be a great time for some guidance. Here PTB, come on.”

“They aren’t puppies. Rarely do they come when called.”

“Useful lot.”

“Yep.” Ari nodded. “How about you put what we have already discussed on the back burner and start back at the beginning. What did you plan to ask when I first came home?”

“Ah, okay.” Stiles thought. “Well, you kind of answered what are we but…”

“But not completely, so apparently we are starting right off with a plunge off a cliff. You do know how to make conversations interesting.” Ari joked.

“I assumed that the beginning was a good place to start.”

“That is hardly the beginning but it is probably the best place for you to begin, i’ll admit to that.” He sighed. “To start, we are a type of Fae.”

Stiles rolled his eyes, “Yeah, I got that.”

“Hush,imp.” Ari scolded, playfully. “Let me speak. As I was saying, we are a type of Fae made up of many types of Fae.”

“What?”

“This is difficult to explain. I cannot tell you what kind of Fae you are, yes?”

“Right, because my powers aren’t manifested or whatever.”

“Yes, but that is because of what we are. Most types of Fae are hereditarily based...Dad is this so kid is that as well. There is little interbreeding even among the types that can produce viable offspring so that is not an issue.”

“But we do interbreed?”

“No, well yes, I guess. But even in our case we tend to breed with humans or our own kind in the specific sense but almost never in the broader sense.”

“You are making no sense.”

“I’m really not, am I?” Ari shook his head. “Sorry, like I said, this is tricky to explain.”

“Let’s see if  I can guide this along a bit then.” Stiles sighed. “We are different than most Fae in that we can have different types of Fae blood related to each other. Did I get that at least?”

Ari grinned. “Thank God, yes. Yes you did. Have I mentioned how much I love your strange little brain that can make sense of anything?”

“I’ll take that as a complement.”

“It was.”

“Okay, now this variety is not from interbreeding but something else...mutation?”

“In a sense, magickal mutation.” Ari nodded. “We can come back to that.”

“Okay. So we are Fae but not? Like Wolves and Dogs are both Canines but different at the same time?”

Ari looked stunned. “That is...that’s perfect.  I mean it is more like wolves and wolf-dogs but yes.”

Stiles frowned. “Oh, so we were bred out and made to be more specific in terms of traits and then reintroduced to the main Fae lines which would lead to enhanced natural features.”

“You are the best!” Ari grinned widely. “Yes, it’s not a perfect analogy but better than anything I have come up with. Right, so, we were sort of bred to be warriors...police...for the Fates. Stronger, faster, and in many cases, crazier than normal Fae. We represent nearly every breed with useful offensive abilities. Somes lines have more diversity than others, the Stilinski’s are notorious for almost never having the two of the same breeds in a generation and other families have lines that only ever represent one breed because it is what works best. No one knows why...well, for sure...Stilinski’s do tend to breed with humans more often than other Fae so that probably accounts for some of it.”

“Yeah, okay. Fate’s warriors, huh?”

“Yeah.”

“So, we are the freaks of the Freak world.”

“Harsh. That would imply that we are less than the other Fae. Not true.”

“No, I got that. I’m guessing we are less than lived though.”

“That’s true.” Ari said. “Many fear our kind...most.”

“I’m kind of getting the feeling that they should. The whole never knowing what they’re going to get with us thing would be a little freaky.”

“I suppose. Anyways, how do I explain?” He flexed his hands and watched the tendons and bones shift under his skin as he always did when he was thinking. “Hunters.” He muttered, half to himself.

“What about them?”

“They work in families, right? Like the Argents. I haven’t met many but that is what I have come to understand.”

“The big ones do.” At least that is what Allison had told them. “Obviously there are individual hunters as well but the supernatural boogeyman type work under family names. Even outsiders will take the name legally once they join the family.”

“Right. And, okay, lets deal with Argents specifically because we both know them and it will be easier. Regardless, our kind work the same way. Or well sort of a mix between hunter families and wolf packs, I guess, but that’s neither here nor there. Anyways, the Stilinski’s are a clan line, made up of smaller branches which is where the pack thing comes in to play, more on that later. But anyways, we work as individuals, under the same name, and band with our own family first before seeking the help of outsiders. Clan lines will work together if necessary and we all try to play nice but we tend to stick with our lines. Anyways, different jobs require different things of us so having a variety of types to work with makes a Clan line more useful than one who can only do one thing. Like the Argents, but on a bigger scale: Allison is an archer, Her father a gunman, her Mother is more the assassin type -uses poison mostly-, her Aunt was a sniper, and her Grandfather loved his swords. I know of other Argent who prefer even closer combat, daggers, claws, etc… I even met one that used these badass spelled brass knuckles once. He wouldn’t be able to take an alpha but he dispatched a lot of troublesome omegas with those things.”

Stiles flinched. He wasn’t exactly overjoyed to talk about dying weres. Ari seemed to realize this and frowned apologetically, “He’s big on the code, kiddo. I know it is hard to imagine with your experiences and the Pack you are familiar with  but there are werewolves that need to be put down. Not Scott or the Hale pack, I had never heard of them so they are good people. We only get wind of the ones that need handling so they never came on radar. But some packs are too dangerous...too vicious to be allowed to live.”

“That was blunt.”

“Better that than beating around the bush.” It stung a little but Stiles knew that it was true. Ari was right, Evil Undead notwithstanding, Stiles was used to weres that either kept to themselves or were his friends but, he assumed, much like their non-were counterparts there were some bad eggs in the bunch. It was still sort of uncomfortable to talk about the non-Allison type Argents in the world.

He sighed “I guess it is. Lets just get back to the Stilinski-Argent comparison test, shall we?”

Ari smiled. “Yeah. Okay so what I was getting at is that our kind run the gambit of Fae strengths and the fates like a selection of--”

“Mercenaries?”

“We don’t get paid.”

“Thugs?”

“Better.” Ari chuckled. “Anyways, some are more suited for negotiation, some intimidation, others elimination and this way they can decide who best fits the job.”

“Like Allison or her dad being the go to for long range hunting and her mom or that guy you were talking about would have to get up close and personal with the were.” Stiles thought he got it. Though, his lack of knowledge about the Fae left him a little blank on the actual implications.

“Exactly, and wolf packs are supposed to work in the same way the Hales are just idiots and have been left with an enforcer heavy load.”

“Yeah, I’m gonna need more information on the pack structure thing.”

“We’ll deal with that later. Right now let’s stick with the Fae. It will be less confusing that way.” Ari was probably right about that.

“Wait,” Stiles had a sudden thought, “Choice of weapon and choice of species is a little different.”

“I suppose, but not entirely. Our kind don’t really work like other Fae. Regardless of Fae classification we have a culture all of our own so our classifications basically acts like a suit of armor and an arsenal. We are Warriors first and foremost.”

“Okay, Yeah. That makes sense I guess.” Stiles said. “Can I ask you something?”

“Shoot.”

“Why wasn’t I told sooner? I mean, I guess I know why but why the rule?”

“Its a Stilinski thing.” Ari explained. “Most clan lines don’t have any such rule and many grow up knowing even if their powers don’t come in until later. They are raised as Fae above all else or as something between Fae and Human. You will find some exceedingly disagreeable Warriors that are a little holier than thou to Humans. There is a History with the Stilinski’s and the rule that is long and complicated and really boring to listen to. Seriously, I regretted asking. It affects nothing, I suggest ignoring it until you need something to put you to sleep.”

Stiles laughed. “Okay, I mean I guess it isn’t important right now anyways I slipped the rule anyways, huh?”

“You did indeed.”

“When were you told?”

“18th birthday. As were Wladyslaw and Ignacek, that is the tradition. Don’t ask why, our powers can come in anytime from age 14 to age 25. Hormones, you know. So I have no clue why 18 is our standard.”

“When did your powers come in?”

“When I was 15. Not that I noticed, really. I was a bit faster, a bit stronger, but hey, puberty.”

“I haven’t noticed anything like that.” Stiles sighed. If anything, he felt weaker than ever compared to the weres. Seeing Ari take on Derek and Peter was kind of depressing.

“You might never.” Ari told him. “Not all Fae have enhanced strength or speed.”

“That sucks.”

“Grzegorz, don’t think like that. There are a lot cooler Fae powers than strength.”

“Bet there are some pretty lame ones too, though.”

Ari shook his head with a smile. “It is what you make it.”

“Still, it would be kind of kick ass to be able to push the furballs around once in awhile.” Still said, imagining it. That would be heaven. He grinned.

“I imagine it would. I am impressed you have dealt with them for this long. I spent most of the last few hours restraining myself from punching the dolts in the face.”

“Evil Undead and Sourwolf are quite the pair, aren’t they?”

“Ugh.” Ari groaned. “Anyways, I agree and have had countless arguments with Papa about the rule. It isn’t up to him though. There is a Stilinski Council, believe it or not.”

“Seriously?”

“And only branch heads can appeal to them. So I have to wait until Aron joins us before I can can take it up with them. It’s a stupid rule that is going to get someone killed someday.”

“What do you mean?”

Ari glanced away, “I mean that if someone had told me sooner I might have been prepared to lose an eye to a penalty that I had no idea existed.” He growled.

Stiles jerked and stared, flabbergasted, at his cousin. “That, that was a knife!”

“Not so much. I thought I was going crazy until I turned 18. Turns out the slash from the knife? Nowhere near deep enough to permanently affect my eyesight.” He frowned deeply. “ Apparently I should be grateful that I was important enough to their plans to escape being struck completely blind.” He had gone tense. “For two fucking years I thought I was going crazy, that I was seeing things.” He flipped up his bangs and stared at Stiles. “I wasn’t.” He waited.

Stiles was confused for a moment before he managed to fully focus on the milky iris. He blinked and leaned closer. Were those...words?

They were, he realized. The milky film wasn’t solid, it was made up of little letters, hundreds of them, forming words in a language that he had never seen. “The fuck?” he whispered. He had always thought the injury was odd. Ari was strangely protective of it, as well. Hiding it behind bangs meant that most people wouldn’t even realize that there was something wrong with it unless he told them. “What is that? Writing?”

“A brand.” Ari nodded. “Marking me as a violator of Law. It can only be seen by Fae, luckily. I can’t imagine how the hospital would have reacted to it.”

“But you could see it. And our fathers, and Papa...They said nothing?”

“When I questioned it they pushed me off. I gave up after a while.” He shook his hair back into place. “Messing with the Fates is dangerous business, Grzegorz. You wouldn’t like the consequences.”

“But you said human fates weren’t set like Fae. What did it matter saving him?”

“He was less human than I would have assumed at the time.”

“The gang member?”

“Was Fae. Sanguine, to be particular about it. And he was supposed to die.”

“And you saved him.”

“If you can call it that.” Ari scoffed. “He was hit by a car when he ran from the cops. Warrants out for his arrest. Killed on impact.”

Stiles sat stunned into silence for a moment. “It seems that Fae are a bit less immortal that stories tell.”

“Immortal and indestructible, as long as they stay on the fates good side.” Ari corrected. “He didn’t.”

“So, we can only die if PTB gives the okay?”

“The Fates, Grzegorz, That is what they are called.”

“Whatever.”

Ari smiled sadly, “Really, nothing is immortal. Everything can die, and will. It is inevitable. Even the Fates are not immune.”

“But they make the call.”

“They decide if a Fae is worth keeping alive. Once a Fae...or a Fate… is deemed unnecessary or unwelcome their death is written in. They are assigned a Warrior and...”

“Painful and violent ends at the hands of our kind.”

“Not always. Not all Warriors kill violently for elimination missions. It goes back to the whole different people are good for different things idea.”

Stiles shivered, “Wait, does that mean that all Fae that die are targets of elimination? They are always killed by one of our kind? Why don’t the Fates just let them go quietly in their sleep? Why is it our job?”

“That...that is a question I have no answer for.” Ari frowned. “No one knows. We only know that all normal Fae die at the hands of a Warrior.”

“How do Warriors die then? I mean we have some pretty freaking odd deaths in the family.” And all at not inexplicable ages for a human. Stiles didn’t say that out loud, he wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to know the answer.

“A good question, typically we die doing something stupid because we are suddenly less than indestructible.”

“So the Fates can just take away the immortality. Why do they only do that wiht Warriors...ANd seriously is there a cooler name for our kind?”

“Many call us Dola which goes completely against the slavic myths. Or perhaps the slavic myths go completely against us? I don’t know.”

“That sounds like some sort of pastry.”

“Fitting given the points of mythic comparison to the Brownie.” Ari smiled.

“Oh come on.” Stiles groaned “Could we have a wimpier name?”

“Wimpy sounding or not, Fae still shudder to hear it.”

“Point. Which bring me to this, if Fae have no free-will, why do the Fates need enforcers?”

Ari laughed and flipped his bangs again. “Because I could do this. Someone has to be there to correct the mistakes. My father used his powers to cause the crash that killed the Sanguine.”

Ouch. That had to be hell to learn.

Ari continued. “Dola make sure the world runs the way the Fates need it to. Keep people from stepping over the line.”

“We are Fae hunters.”

“Simply put, yes. Though our job is often far more complicated that hunt and kill. Eliminations are only a small portion of what are kind a called to do. We are negotiators and mediators and the mouth of the Fates and yes, we are often tasker with the punishment of violators.”

“But we only deal with Fae?” Stiles questioned.

“Not necessarily. We deal with the Cursed Breeds if we need to. We are only called in if something goes very, very wrong. We rarely mess with the normal Humans though.”

“I guess our kind aren’t well loved by them either.”

“No. The call us Mediators.” Stiles could hear the capitalization...and the dark undertone. No, he thought, not well liked at all.

“And by that they mean…”

“Judge, Jury, and Executioner.” Ari sighed. Stiles felt queazy all over again. “I can’t blame them. The interference of Dola in Cursed breed affairs almost always ends in blood being shed. We only get the seriously bad situations.” He glanced at Stiles and took in his palid skin. “Oh. Oh, Grzegorz, I told you. We had no idea that the Hale pack was even here. We weren’t called here for any reason. The Hale pack isn’t breaking any laws.” He hesitated, “The Argent have been but there was no specific connection to a pack in the area.”

“The Argents? What do you mean?”

“You really think Kate Argent’s particular brand of psychosis slipped under the radar? And to be honest, she was her father’s daughter. Which makes me more than a little uncomfortable with his son being around and his Granddaughter dating our Scottie-dog.”

“Allison is great. She really is.” Stiles countered. “Believe me when we found out about the hunter thing I freaked too. But she is Scott’s anchor and they are more than a little gone on each other. As for her Dad...her more scares me more but, they are both dangerous I agree. I would rather be locked in a soundproof cellar with Peter Hale then have dinner with Allison’s mom.” He paused. “That being said, their daughter is everything to them and while I wouldn’t necessarily say that makes them allies, they are non-enemies.”

“I’ll need to meet them before I pass judgement.” Ari nodded. “Soon. I...I don’t like them around you but at least I am here now if something goes wrong.”

Stiles smiled, same old over-protective Ari. He was glad for the back up, though. Although he did find it  a bit odd that Ari objected more to the presence of the Argents, whom he had admitted to knowing, than the unknown wolf pack Stiles had been running with. “You don’t have a problem with the wolves but the humans make you twitchy?”

“First,” Ari scowled, “They are both humans. Second, the Hunters are as much a cursed breed as the weres.”

Stiles was stunned by that revelation, “Seriously?”

“You think normal humans could track cursed breeds like they do?” Ari laughed. “The real difference is they chose the curse the first time around and have been passing it around ever since. They turn people just like weres only with less biting and more initiation ritual is actually a curse placement ceremony. Each family is different in terms of the ritual but yeah, they literally curse themselves.”

“Fuck.” That was...disturbing. For all Kate’s ‘they’re monsters’ blustering her own kind were just as bad. Worse even. “They fight fire with fire.” Ari nodded. Stiles grimaced, Allison had no clue about this, their pretty brunette informant on all things hunter would not have kept this kind of info from him and Scott at the very least. “Do they know what they are doing?”

“Absolutely. The cursing has to be consensual or it won’t take right.”

“Allison doesn’t.”

“Are you so sure?”

“Seriously, she can’t keep anything from Scott, it is almost hilarious.”

“She’s probably his mate then. But that is unimportant, she really doesn’t know?” Ari looked confused. She should have been told, she has been training. She acts like a huntress already.”

“Kate started training her, her dad took over...after.”

“But neither of them told her.” Ari looked pissed. Stiles realized that this consent thing was kind of a bigger deal than he originally assumed. “So, either they are hiding it or they don’t know either.”

“But they have to, you just said…” ‘consensual or it won’t take right’, Stiles realized with a shiver. Not consensual or it won’t take, consensual or it won’t take right. Shit. “What kind of not right are we talking here?” Could Kate’s crazy have come from this? “Like, one way trip to the looney bin not right or…”

“Potentially, but it isn’t likely. It would probably mutate the curse.” He breathed in eyes widening, “Oh Christ.”

Stiles did not like the sound of that. “What? Worse? What kind of mutation?”

“Like one that could be directly passed down a genetic line eliminating the need for a curse at all. I need to speak to them. I… as soon as possible. This could be bad and is definitely something Gerard might have done to his children.”

“Gerard?” The name sounded familiar.

“Allison’s Grandfather.” Ari looked away, “He pissed off some people in very high places.”

“The fates?”

“Among others.” Ari said. “He was my elimination actually.”

Stiles’ breath caught in his throat, “But Allison said he died in a car crash on the way to Kate’s funeral.”

“I try to leave as little evidence as possible when I eliminate humans. Dola have had some...issues...in the past when someone forgot to clean up after themselves. Fae are easier to deal with they tend to steer clear of humans and if the show up dead everyone knows why and who.” Ari told him bluntly. Stiles must have looked more than a little disturbed because Ari reached over and touched his shoulder, “Grzegorz, he violated the code. He was killing wolves he had no right to. And worse if what I am thinking is right. It disturbs me that something like this might have escaped the Council’s sight though.”

“Yeah, I get that I guess. I mean I didn’t know him but I trust you on that. Its just...you killed Allison’s Grandfather. Like, how do we break that news?”

“Let me speak to her family first. They can decide what to do.”

“And if they are angry?”

“That is their prerogative, Grzegorz. They can hate me but it won’t change anything and it isn’t like they can touch me. I am going to contact the Dad about speaking to the Stilinski Council tomorrow and put the Hale pack under our protection as well. Hell would rain down on them if the tried anything against a Dola clan ally.”

“You can do that?”

“Absolutely.” Ari told him. “But, if they are as protective of their daughter as you claim, Grzegorz, we are more likely to gain an ally than an enemy. If Gerard, who I know knew about the curse, didn’t inform his children and it mutated...They are going to be more pissed at him than at me for killing him.”

“I thought you couldn’t talk to the council or whatever until Aron was told.”

“Until he comes into his powers, actually. His knowing isn’t part of the deal. But this is sort of an emergency and Dad is our current branch head so he can intervene and ask for me to be allowed an audience.”

“Not Papa?”

“No, It passes by generation. Title passed to Dad when your Dad came into his powers.”

“Weird.”

Ari laughed. “We are potentially immortal, Grzegorz, if it passed upon death we would be in quite a pickle. It is only a title, really. Dad is my spokesman at this point,  Since Uncle Justek left to move here their unit doesn’t actually do must in the way of work for the fates. Our generation is younger, faster, and more efficient. Our unit is the branches primary one.”

“How many units does our branch have? How many Dola?” This was so confusing.

“How many brothers does Papa have? How many male second cousins do we have?”

A lot. The answer was a lot. “Whoa.”

“Whoa.” Ari agreed with a laugh. “The Stilinski clan is one of the largest Dola clan lines in the world, Grzegorz. The only one bigger is the Caliapos-Arggera Clan line and that is because they bred four lines into each other. We Stilinski men are a virile lot.”

That was kind of terrifying and kind of amazing. “Papa isn’t the eldest of his brothers, though. Why was he branch head?”

“It runs through the Leader of the Primary unit in a branch. Which is the eldest on our case but it isn’t always.” Ari explained.

“Power then?”

“Not necessarily. It is more of a personality  and circumstance thing. Dominance more than anything else.  I was the most dominant in our unit and you all deferred to me so I became the Leader. Power in Fae is hugely variable and it is damn near impossible to say who is the most powerful in a group when you are dealing with different breeds. It’s like comparing apples to orangutans.”

Stiles laughed. “What are...um, you guys? Like I know we don’t know  what I am but can I know what you are?”

Ari smiled. “I should let them explain for themselves.” Stiles frowned, annoyed, “Sorry but as much as I know it is always better to hear it from the horses’ mouths.”

“Fine.” He grumbled. “What about you?”

“Ah, me.” Ari sighed. “That is a bit of a sticky subject that I am not certain belongs in this conversation.”

“Oh, come on!” Stiles snapped. “Let’s just get everything out of the way now so I can just move on.”

“Grzegorz, there is no moving on.” Ari spoke sharply. “This is your life now. Get it? Good. There is too much you need to know for me to explain everything in a single shot. First of all, this needs some time to sink in. Second, I need some time to prepare. I’m not going to half ass the conversation just so you can get through this  faster.”

Stiles wanted to protest but thought better of it. Ari wasn’t wrong, and honestly, given everything that was happening at the moment it might be better to take a step back and figure out the rest of this crap before he complicates his life even further.

Tomorrow...Today, they were going to have to do all this again with the Pack. They had to figure out how to help Danny. The Argents needed to be dealt with. Then, after all that was done, then they could get back into...everything else. A thought struck him, “Ari, why wasn’t Kate eliminated? I would think that burning down a houseful of innocent werewolves would put her on someone’s hit list.”

“The Hales told me about that earlier.” Ari sighed. “I really don’t know. But you have understand that the fates aren’t exactly fair. Even with Gerard they had no problems letting him do what he wanted until it started affecting their plans. Kate...the Hales meant nothing to them. The ones that died at least. They had no reason to intervene, especially since they need her.”

“She broke the code. That is why you killed Gerard, right? That should have been enough.” Stiles tensed. What kind of fucked up plans did these fates have that Kate Argent was more important the people she had killed. Somehow Stiles doubted the Hales were the only innocent blood staining her hands.

“I know. I know, believe me. But we don’t make our orders. No one knew anything about Kate Argent until she was targeted for elimination a month or so ago.” He stopped, thought, “Well, no. I guess the fates knew but until, Maera was assigned elimination the Dola had nothing to do with it.”

“Maera?”

“A friend of mine. She told me a couple weeks ago that she never even got the chance, Kate was dead before she even figured out where to find her. She had some kind of human magic cloaking her location from the fates.”

“Peter killed her first.”

“He did.”

“And what exactly put her in the doghouse?”

Ari sighed, “We don’t get to ask questions, Grzegorz. If we aren’t told specifically we don’t get to know.”

“Whatever.” Suddenly, Stiles felt bone deep tired. “Can we stop now?”

Ari looked concerned, “Are you okay?”

“No.” Stiles huffed. “I’m not. But I need to sleep and process. I just…”

Ari nodded, “The answers you want will be there tomorrow, or the next day, or the next. Go.” He got up off the couch. “Sleep. I’ll clean up down here. We can talk later.”

“You need to sleep too.” Stiles murmured, the weight of the day was finally crashing down on him and he could barely keep his eyes open. “Gonna need to talk to Pack t’morrow.” He slurred.

“I know. I will. Now move. I’m not carrying you up the stairs. See you in the…” He glanced out the window at the already brightening sky, “later in the morning. Possibly the afternoon.”

Stiles snickered. “Yeah, morning, later.” He hugged his cousin and stumbled up the stairs. He had enough semblance of consciousness to shoot of a text to Scott. ‘show up before noon and nothing will save you.’ He didn’t have much hope for it working though. He curled into his blankets not even bothering to change. Too much effort.  He needed to get in at least a couple hours and Scottie would only be able to hold back the hordes for so long, the wimp. He’d be lucky if he got until 10am.

Ugh.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A more cutesy chapter for all of your 'this series is going to get heavy fast' needs.

He got until 9:30.

Scott was dead to him. Dead.

He really questioned his choice of friends sometimes. Not that he had really chosen most of them. He chose Scott and...nope, that was it. Just Scott. He missed the good old days when no one but Scottie wanted anything to do with him. All these new additions, they were not choices. They were, however, his to deal with.

It was 9:30 in the morning. He had gone to bed at 7:30. Well, he got those couple of hours he was so hopeful for. Fucking A.

It was 9:30 in the morning and Stiles was engaged in a vigorous game of tug-of-war with someone. Someone strong. Strong and mean. He spluttered as a he got a mouthful of hair. Well, that eliminated Boyd from the list of potential suspects. Not that he really was a suspect. He was a little too stoic to be jumping on Stiles bed. Isaac was probably a little too gun shy. He tugged his blanket again and kicked, rather viciously if he did say so himself, up between their legs and this time the culprit fell. Go him.

Another mouthful of hair and...yep, those were boobs.

Erica.

“Ow! Shit.” He grunted as she smacked him hard across the face. “Yo! That was not my fault. You fell on me boobs first. They just happened to be the only part I managed to catch.” The telltale prick of claws on his skin had him calling out “Um, help? Guys? Scott? Seriously, Erica, that hurts!” And he was bleeding. Great.

The angry she-wolf was lifted off of him a moment later before she could slice through anything vital. Thank You Boyd. You, sir, get all the cookies.

“Not cool, Stiles. Girls do not appreciate random groping.”

Scott gets none. None.

There was a snicker. Neither did Isaac. Assholes, the lot of them.

“Neither does the Stiles.” He growled, pulling the blanket back over his head. “Her hand? Definitely started out on my crotch.” Which was so much more awkward no that he knew it was Erika on top of him. “What the hell are you furry freaks doing here?” He whipped the blankets off again and glared at Scott. “Not noon!”

His former best friend looked sheepish. Good. He should be. Bastard.

“Whatever, your cousin said we had to wait for you to get up. We brought coffee.” Isaac muttered.

They brought coffee.

_They brought coffee._

Oh. Good.

They woke him up two hours after he went to bed...but they brought coffee. Well then, _all_ is forgiven.

“Fuck you.” He glared at them. “Was that coffee brewed with Monster contain, 3 shots of espresso, and come with a speed chaser? No? Fuck you and your coffee then.” He pulled the sheets back over his head. They were pulled back off. “Scott! Stop. Sleepy times now.” He whined, eyes firmly closed against the morning light from his window.

“Sorry, Stiles. That wasn’t me.” Scott said regretfully. Why did Stiles have the distinct feeling that it hadn’t been Isaac either? He opened an eye. He regretted it instantly.

“Dude, you look worse than I feel!” He blurted before he could get control of his tongue. Ari looked...murderous.

“If I have to be up, so do you.” The elder growled menacingly. Seriously, Peter and Derek should take lessons.

Stiles quickly found himself yanked up out of bed by his wrist, which cracked threateningly and made Stiles wonder what the Fae healing factor was like in comparison to the puppies.

Ari’s hair was wet, recently showered, which gave Stiles pause. He gaped at Scott weakly “Dude! How long have you people been here?”

“Forty-five minutes.” Isaac provided.

Scott shrunk under Stiles’ glare. “I forgot that Ari was on the couch.” He offered.

“Ugh.” Stiles whined. “Who?”

“What?” Scott questioned, confused. Idiot.

“Where, when, why.” Stiles heard Isaac sing-song mockingly. Seriously, you give a guy a leather jacket.

Ari answered Stiles question. “A small herd of teenage hormones and a couple of surly twenty somethings.”

Stiles stared at Scott as if he had never seen him before. When did he get this dumb? Had Allison sucked his brain out through his dick? “All of you?” He managed. “All of you?!”

“Derek and Peter didn’t actually come with us. They must have just shown up.” Isaac said.

“Three minutes ago.” Ari confirmed. “You two.” He glared at Scott and Isaac, “Scram.” The two betas could not have gotten out of the room fast enough, Erica and Boyd were already long gone. Ari collapsed onto Stiles bed with a huff. “Your people suck. I hate them all. Especially my brother.”

“What did Iggy do?” Stiles asked. He decided not to risk his cousin’s ire and started digging out clothes to change into.

“Let the little bastards in.” Ari growled.

“Scott has a key.”

“I chained the door last night to avoid this.”

Iggy was definitely going on Stiles’ shit list too. “Rat bastard.” Stiles frowned at the hoodie in his hands. Was this the dirty pile or the clean pile? He sniff tested it and dropped it like a hot potato. Definitely the dirty pile. Whew. He grabbed another one off of what was apparently the clean pile and sniffed again. Better safe than sorry.

Laundry detergent.

_Nice._

“Tell me about it.” Ari groused. He glanced around the room. “This place is a pigsty.”

“I’ve been busy.” Stiles countered. “The whole Kanima thing, you know.” It was a weak excuse. Whatever.

“Uh huh. Pig.”

Stiles changed quickly knowing that he was not going to be allowed the luxury of a shower. At least he had had one yesterday. He zipped the hoodie up with a tug and reached out to help Ari off the bed.

The elder man snickered at him. “What?”

“Nice hoodie.” He joked before tugging the hood down over his eyes. Stiles realized with a groan that it was the hoodie that their younger cousin, Alex, had given him two Christmases ago. It was one of those costume ones with the mask hood, a bat in this case. He lifted one of his arms and watched as the weird wing things expanded.

He sighed. “Let me change.”

“Oh no.” Ari denied. “We can call this punishment for having such annoying friends.”

“Why should I be punished for them?!”

“Because I said so.” Ari grinned and pushed him out the door. “Now, haul ass.”

***

“Finally.” Jackson snapped as Stiles followed Ari into the room. “We have been waiting for y-” He burst into laughter. “The fuck are you wearing, Stilinski?”

“Shove it up your ass, Lizard breath.” Stiles muttered, ignoring the others chuckles and moving to the kitchen to find the coffee he was promised. Allison, the sweetheart, smiled at him gently and handed over the rewarmed mug. “You are a goddess among women.”

She grinned “I try.” She leaned in and whispered conspiratorially, “I think it’s cute.”

She would.

He smiled at her, a little tightly. “Thanks, Allison.”

“You look five.” Lydia sniped at him. She was sipping tea out of his favorite mug.

“Good morning, Lydia. How are you today?”

“Seriously, why?”

“It was christmas gift.” He sipped his coffee.

“Do they hate you?”

Iggy grinned at him. “From our younger, female, cousin. Show them the wings.”

Stiles sighed and held one of his arms out at a right angle. Allison cooed. Lydia rolled her eyes.

“It’s a bat. How adorable!” Allison said. “Do you know where she got them? I want one!”

Lydia stared at her. “You can’t be serious.”

Allison pouted. “I think it’s cute.”

“Why am I friends with you?”

She grinned and clung to the other girls arm happily “‘Cause you love me!”

Stiles laughed. “I’ll ask next time I talk to her. It’s a couple years old though.”

“Looks new.” It should. He had never worn it and he actually kind of wondered how it had ended up in his laundry.

“Yeah well…” He trailed off pointedly making her giggle.

“Not really your thing?”

“Not so much, no.” He watched Iggy shuffle through a cabinet, the third since Stiles had entered the room. “Looking for something?”

“I smelled them in my dreams and yet they are no where to be found.” He said as he opened the next one. The gingersnaps, Stiles realized. Iggy scowled when he came up empty again. “The pans were still drying when I came down here.” He glared at Stiles . “Where did you hide them?”

He shrugged and grinned “II had nothing to do with it. Ask your brother.”

Iggy flinched. “I’m never getting those cookies am I?” He muttered.

Lydia perked up. “Cookies?” She looked around the room as if expecting them to suddenly appear. “Gingersnaps?” Iggy nodded, sullenly. Lydia turned on Stiles, “Now.” she hissed at him eyes narrowed.

“Just, out of curiosity,” Ari drawled, sipping his coffee and smirking at his younger brother, “Did you even try the cookie jar?”

Iggy stopped sifting through the contents of the junk drawer. Because that was definitely where normal people would hide cookies...with the take out menus and the screwdrivers. Logic was not Iggy’s strong suit.

He turned to stare at his brother blankly, “Cookie jar?”

Ari nodded. “Cookie jar.”

Iggy glanced around the room and spotted the ceramic Wookie sitting next to the fridge. He turned to Stiles and frowned, “Cookie Jar?” he pointed, shoulders slumping.

“I prefer to call it a Wookie- jar, but yeah.” Stiles laughed. “Seriously? Ari gave it to me on my last Birthday, remember?”

Iggy sighed and picked the jar up furtively. He turned it over in his hands gently and watched it as if he was expecting it to explode any second.

It didn’t.

Lydia didn’t want to wait. SHe stole the jar from him and pulled off the top to reveal a pile of fresh gingersnaps. She moaned a she bit into the first.

What wouldn’t Stiles have given to have given Lydia Martin that face while he was still pretending he had a snowball’s chance in hell to steal her away from Jackson?

Allison snagged a couple for herself and grinned at him when she finished chewing. “Soo…” She purred, “I’d leave Scott for you.”

She so wouldn’t. Not that Stiles would ever betray Scott, anyways but seriously? Wild horses couldn’t keep those two away from each other.  
Scott should know this as well, though the wounded animal noise coming from the living room said otherwise. Scott had been chatting with Isaac in but was by her side in a moment all light-up eyes and pointy teeth and low grumbling.

“What?!” He barked before whining plaintively at his girlfriend, “I heard that. What are you talking about? Leaving?”

She grinned at him guilelessly, “I’m leaving you for Stiles and his cookies.” She offered him one, “No hard feelings?”

He took the snap happily, body relaxing. “Oh, okay. Yeah, I totally understand.” He grabbed a few more out of the jar and offered a couple to Isaac, who had trailed in after him, concerned. “Here, eat. Then you will understand.”

The beta wrinkled his nose slightly, “No thanks, not a fan of gingersnaps, too dry.”

Well then.

Stiles felt a little insulted. Dry? His gingersnaps were never, never, dry. He made to speak in defense of his cookies but Scott beat him to it, “Dude. No, just no.” He scowled, looking offended. “Eat the cookie.”

“Can I at least have some milk?” Isaac sighed.

Stiles could hear himself start to growl and apparently so could everyone else if their looks of confusion and surprise were anything to go by. Was he the growly type of Fae? Was that a thing? Either way, no way was he letting milk get anywhere close to his snaps.

Allison was the first to shake of her confusion, tearing her eyes away from Stiles’ still rumbling form and rolled her eyes at Isaac, “Just eat the cookie.” she commanded.

He did.

It was apparently a religious moment for him, as it should be.

Ha. Take that, dogboy.

Now that was the proper countenance of a man offered a Stiles Stilinski gingersnap. Utter adulation. Stiles smirked.

What? He deserved his smugness. His gingersnaps were like the ambrosia of the gods.

Lydia interrupted his moment of glorious triumph over inferior taste buds, “First of all, is this all you made? If so, that was stupid.” She glared at him and Stiles noticed that the jar was already more than half empty.

“It shouldn’t be.” He muttered. He had made a triple batch and a single one normally filled the jar.

“There are...Elsewhere.” Ari told them. “Make those last, I won’t be getting more to refill the jar until tomorrow.”

“Oh, come on.” Iggy whined, stuffing two more cookies in his mouth. “S’not fair.”

“Try chewing, “ Ari sneered, “they might last longer. Regardless, did you make them, bake them, or clean up after them? No? Not your choice then.” He indicated Stiles.

“Stiles.” Iggy implored, “Grzegorz, make him give me cookies.”

Stiles considered the request for a moment before realizing that they would eat them all and start begging him for more right away and honestly, he had more important things going on right now. “Sorry, I only answer to the bossman.” He grinned. Ari made a great scapegoat. No one in their family was stupid enough to go against him.

“Damn.” Iggy sighed. “I hate you.”

Lydia pursed her lips, looking less than pleased with the decision but quickly shook off her disappointment. “Whatever, can we just get started? I don’t want to be here all day doing nothing.”  
Ari nodded his agreement, “She’s right. We have a lot to talk about today and this is a waste of time. Bring the cookies in the living room and we’ll get started.”

Lydia picked the wookie up off the counter and strode off into the other room with it. Allison followed holding both their mugs. Within a few moments the kitchen emptied of everyone except Stiles who sighed and refilled his coffee from the pot that Ari had put on before following suit.

This was going to be a long discussion.

Caffeine was his friend.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I missed yesterday, sorry. Have some Pack Dynamics 101.
> 
> EDIT: TWINS CONVO EDITED.

At least everyone else was now on the same, confusing, page as Stiles. He doubted that anyone else was pleased about that but hey, it sure made him feel better.

Scott was staring at him, more than a little lost. His eyes were screaming ‘wait, I’m human but you’re not?!’ at Stiles, which, yeah, that seemed to be the part the majority of them were stuck on. Including Derek, Stiles thought that was a little odd being that Peter looked wholly unsurprised by the information and they were both born wolves, of similar age, from the same pack and family.

Then again, this was Peter. He was, Stiles admitted to himself begrudgingly, probably the smartest person in the room apart from Ari.

Well, and Lydia, but the genius thing didn’t come with automatic knowledge of the supernatural world. She would definitely be the first one to get it though. Absolutely.

Depressingly enough, exactly nothing was clearer to Stiles about this whole Fae thing the second time hearing it. In fact, he might actually be more confused in the light of day.

Anyways, the majority of the room looked as lost if not more lost than Stiles was so he felt a little less out of the loop now.

Ari finished his little spiel and glanced around the room, “Questions? Comments?”

It was Jackson that spoke. Of course it was. “What the fuck?!”  
Danny made as if to reprimand his best friend for his outburst but thought better of it because, you know, what the fuck was actually a pretty tame reaction to all this weirdness. At least for Jackson.

Pick your battles and all that.

Lydia glared at her boyfriend, however, Stiles was fairly certain she had a brain crush on his cousin already so she was probably more annoyed that he had stopped talking that at her pet lizard’s choice of phrasing. “What he means is, what does all this mean? In relation to us, I suppose, I mean, its quite obvious what all this means in relation to you but…” She let it hang.  
Obvious? RIght, sure. Maybe she could explain this to him later then.

“Yeah, no. Pretty sure I meant what the fuck.” Jackson muttered from his place beside Danny who was conveniently seated next to Stiles making him one of two not-a-wolfs in the room able to hear him.  
He hated agreeing with Jackson. It burned. Like acid reflux, that could just be the coffee though.

No, definitely an adverse reaction to agreeing with Scales.

Ari nodded sagely at Lydia. “Of course. Well, had Grzegorz not become involved so deeply in your pack it likely wouldn’t mean anything. As it stand, however, it means that the Hale Pack has made a tricky sort of bed for themselves to lie in.”

“He’s not - I’m not - really part of the pack.” Stiles’ frowned as his voice sounded in stereo with Derek’s.

Derek continued, glaring at him as if he had planned that, “Stiles isn’t part of the pack. He’s pack adjacent. If that.”

Well, hey, tell me how you really feel, Stiles thought, annoyed. He was somewhat mollified as every other member of the group snorted or rolled their eyes at the Alpha. Even Peter. He wasn’t sure how to feel about that one.

Peter scoffed at his nephew, “Please, he is as close to your second as a human -non-wolf- can get in a wolf pack. That one,” He tilted his head indicating Scott, “is only second by proxy. He is nothing more than a placeholder for Stilinski.”

Second? Wasn’t Dead-wolf walking Derek’s second?

Stiles repeated the question aloud.

Peter rolled his eyes. “I’m his left hand, I can’t be his second as well.”

Ari nodded. “He’s right. Just like you couldn’t be my second due to your status as left hand. Were you not left hand you would be second in terms of sheer power. As it is, Val is my second because you are my left hand...and I think this is actually a good point in which to veer off into topic two of the day, Pack Dynamics.”

“Which are screwy at best in this hodgepodge of a pack.” Iggy chuckled.

Derek growled at that. “My pack is fine.”

“No. It’s really not.” Iggy sing-songed at him. “You screwed up. Big time.”

Peter chuckled. Ari shot a glare at him, “You are no better. Worse even, you should know better.”

“He turned these ones after my temporary repose began. I am hardly responsible for the issues at hand.”

“Well, you aren’t dead now and you, unlike him, were trained in pack dynamics.”

Peter tensed and frowned, “Barely, I had only begun training when the fire occurred.”

“There is no way that any wolfpack, even a familial one, would allow a completely untrained left-hand to take up their position. Pack Dynamic would have been the first thing you were taught.”

“Even so,” Peter growled fiercely, “I was not there. I had no control over who he turned.”

“They are young, they should be trained to fill more than the role of enforcer until your pack expands to include other types of wolves.”

“I was trained as enforcer, as well. I have no clue how to train other positions.”

“Don’t even try it.” Ari snapped. He looked pissed. “Even if you couldn’t train them the way they would normally be trained you could teach them what they need to know. You still have connections to other packs, even. Hale pack alliances stand as long as one of you is alive. You could have called any one of them for help or information on how to train young turned wolves to do something other than tear things apart.”

They were practically on top of each other now, only the coffee table between them, and they circled like fighters. Stiles thought that they should probably do something before his livingroom was reduced to rubble by a werewolf-whatever Ari was showdown. Iggy was watching them sort of freaked. Up to him then, awesome.

He spoke up, “Hey, curb your testosterone.”

They glared at him.

He continued, “Look, we get it, Evil Undead is an asshole who should have known better. This is, oddly enough, news to exactly no one here. Can we just move on? WHether he knows something or not doesn’t really matter anymore and if this is so important your time would be better served explaining rather than ripping at each other like animals.”

Ari sighed, frowning deeply, but backed off. “He’s right. This is pointless.”

Peter looked less inclined to leave the issue alone but after a few tense moments he returned to his seat next to Derek.

Stiles hadn’t really noticed how tense the room had gotten until everyone suddenly relaxed. Confrontation over...for now. Somehow he doubted that that would be the end of the issue between them.  
A few minutes later everyone had settled right back into their seats and looked expectantly at Ari. He sighed, “I only know so much about werewolf packs but apparently that is still far more than the actual werewolves in the room so I’ll explain what I do know.”

He leaned back into his seat, making himself comfortable, “I assume you all knw the general types of weres? Alpha, Beta, and Omega?”

Scott, puppy that he was, eagerly answered “Alphas are the pack leaders, betas are the other pack members, and omegas are packless.”

Ari frowned, “That’s it?”

Scott looked confused, “There’s more?”

Ari glared at Derek, “Seriously? That is all you’ve told them? Even you should know more than that.”

Derek actually looked sheepish.

_Sheepish._

What the Hell?

“We’ve had a lot on our plates. I told them what they needed to know.”

“Who let you be Alpha?” He glared at Peter again, “Even you would have been better.”

“Well, I did try that one but some people were opposed.” He snarked.

Ari rolled his eyes, “Okay, from the beginning then. Jesus…” He rubbed his temples in frustration. “Alphas. So, yes Alphas lead packs but not all packs have alphas and there are packs entirely made up of Alphas.”

“How does that work?” Danny questioned. “I mean I’ve only been in on this for a night and even I can tell that Alphas are a bit on the aggressive and territorial side of the fence. I mean, wouldn’t more than one Alpha end in a bloodbath?”

A valid point.

Ari nodded. “You would think. Even Alpha’s have hierarchies, though. In Alpha packs there is always a primary alpha, typically a correct succession or true alpha, then other alphas take the other positions in the pack. Admittedly, Alpha packs do not naturally occur and the way they come together is, uh...less than respectable-”

“The prime alpha normally convinces other alphas or betas to kill their packs and join them.” Peter interjected. “Increases the power of the pack to staggering levels.”

“What?!” Scott barked.

“Wait, shouldn’t those be the kinds of packs that, you know, our kind hunt? Or at least hunters?” Stiles questioned. “Seems they are the kind of thing hunters would go after.”

“Not really.” Iggy said. “They are a bit out of hunter’s leagues and well, our kind are called in on occasion but if they don’t mess with Fae they get left alone more often than not. Typically they are hunted by other packs depending on strength.”

Ari nodded. “Most of the time Primary alphas go for weaker packs with weaker alphas because they are easier to control which means they go down reasonably easy. The problem occurs when a strong, connected alpha gets a bee in their bonnet.”

“Are you ninety?” Iggy scoffed, “ _Bee in their bonnet_. Whatever, the point is that they exist but there is only one current Alpha pack in the US.”

“And no one has hunted them yet?”

“Ah, that would be the issue. This would be one of those bee in the bonnet cases.” Iggy shrugged. “One of the major pack alliances kind of went rogue and well...they are sort of a superpack at this point. I think only one of the main allies didn’t end up joining the Alpha pa...Shit.” He looked at Ari, worriedly.

“What’s wrong?”

“Um, you know that whole pack of enforcers drawing negative attention thing we were worried about?” He said.

“Yes.”

“I think we might have a bigger issue. The pack that didn’t join was the Hale pack. My understanding is that the Alpha would have hierarchically been the Hale Alpha so she wasn’t invited.”

Ari looked worried. “Are you sure? These Hales?”

Iggy looked at Derek “Alpha during the fire, female?”

He nodded slowly, “My mother, Talia.”

“Alpha females run in the family, I was the first male Alpha Halw in over 150 years.” Derek growled at that reminding them all of exactly why Peter had become Alpha.  
Iggy ignored the tension in the air and continued, “Then yes, these Hales. Deucalion is going to hear about the new Hale enforcer pack and come calling, I guarantee it.”

“Duke?” Peter snapped looking stunned. “He is the primary?”

“You know him?” Ari questioned.

“Of course, he was one of my sister’s closest friends and a trusted ally of the Hale pack. The last time I saw him was…” He trailed off.

“When?” Derek growled at him.

“The last alliance meeting. The rest of the pack then, Kali, and Ennis? A small pack, then unless he recruited from satellite packs or outside the alliance.”

“He did. And succeeded once. There are five total Alphas in the pack, although, I guess the twins only count as one really.”

“Twins?” Peter questioned suddenly alert “That is exceedingly rare.”

Why did twins sound like a really bad thing all of a sudden?

“Yeah, I didn’t know that was a thing, by the way, a really terrifying thing.” Iggy shuddered.

“Yes, the dual form is...disturbing. I can only imagine what Alpha twins are like.”

“Dual form?” Lydia questioned. Stiles wished that she hadn’t.

“Twin wolves, born ones, share their powers, in a way they share their wolf. They can be a bit of a liability because of that, one shifts so does the other, one dies the other follows.” Ari explained. “However, if one becomes and Alpha…” 

They both do.

“One form?” Whimpered Scott sounding nauseous.

“They merge into each other.” Iggy stated matter of factly. “Freaky as hell. Not a pretty sight.”

“Gross.” Erica gagged.

“Indeed.”

“I had not heard of twins being born before the fire. I assume we aren’t talking about five year old alpha twins.”

“No. They are young, though. About your ages.” Iggy indicated the teens. “I don’t know the whole story but they were omegas in a less than savory pack, Alpha was named Byron, I think.”

“The Pale Light pack, Byron Calagarian.” Peter offered. “Sick bunch.”

That was sort of terrifying coming from Psycho Hale.

“That’s them.” Iggy nodded. “Was. Deucalion got to the twins and well, they aren’t around any longer.”

“I heard about that.” Ari murmured. “I think one of the Havers had been called in for elimination duty. All they found were mangled parts and blood smears. Ended up being clean up duty more than a mission.”

Stiles fought back a gag and questioned an earlier mention, “They were omegas?”

“Pack omegas. Not the packless kind. Personally, I think it’s sort of dumb to call them the same thing.” Iggy shrugged. “Basically the pack bitch, not in the female dog way although it happens especially in a pack like that.”

He was talking about rape, Stiles realized weakly. Pack omegas were raped sometimes. He was starting to understand the hunter’s perspective here and wasn’t that a kick in ass.

 

Iggy continued, “Mostly though it means a born were that doesn’t fit into the pack dynamic or that the pack’s leader doesn’t like much. Grunt work, Punching bags, et cetera. They are outcasts but the Alpha keeps them around because they want the power of a larger pack.”

“That’s them.” Iggy nodded. “Was. Deucalion got to the twins and well, they aren’t around any longer.”

“I heard about that.” Ari murmured. “I think one of the Havers had been called in for elimination duty. All they found were mangled parts and blood smears. Ended up being clean up duty more than a mission.”

Stiles fought back a gag and questioned an earlier mention, “They were omegas?”

“Pack omegas. Not the packless kind. Personally, I think it’s sort of dumb to call them the same thing.” Iggy shrugged. “Basically the pack bitch, not in the female dog way although it happens especially in a pack like that.”

He was talking about rape, Stiles realized weakly. Pack omegas were raped sometimes. He was starting to understand the hunter’s perspective here and wasn’t that a kick in ass.

Iggy continued, “Mostly though it means a born were that doesn’t fit into the pack dynamic or that the pack’s leader doesn’t like much. Grunt work, Punching bags, et cetera. They are outcasts but the Alpha keeps them around because they want the power of a larger pack.”

Peter added, “They essentially are the same as the packless omegas only worse off in many ways. It is rare for a pack to keep omegas and normally they are packs like Hollow Moon. Cruel, vicious, animals.”

And that was Peter saying that. Stiles didn’t want to think about how bad that kind of pack had to be for Peter to sound that disgusted by them.

“This is sort of random but,” Isaac started cautiously, “Aren’t packs referred to by the Alpha’s last name? Like the Hale pack.”

“Sometimes.”

“More often than not.” Derek said. “Some packs that are not familial will have a separate name. It makes more sense in a pack that does not have a familial Alpha succession, can’t keep changing the name every time there is a new Alpha.”

Iggy nodded. “The majority of packs around today are heavily familial so they go by family name.”

“You may need to consider a name change yourselves.” Ari said. “Succession goes to Scott next so Hale pack is a bit misleading. That is totally your decision, though.”

Scott’s eyes blew wide, “What?! I thought... wouldn’t it go back to Peter?”

“Not unless I kill, Derek.” Peter chuckled dryly. “The line of succession was broken, we are no longer a familial pack. If he dies, naturally or by a non-were, or secedes his second becomes alpha and so on down the line. You, then Isaac, then Erica, then Boyd, and as a last resort Jackson.”

“Me?” Isaac squeaked before blushing and clearing his throat. “Why me?”

“It would be Jackson if he was a wolf but his bond to a human supercedes succession lines. Also, Scott treats you as his second so you are. If something were to happen to him you would become Derek’s second.” Peter explained.

“Why is Boyd so low on the chain?” Stiles asked.

“Dominance. Erica is more dominant than Vernon so she would succeed Isaac. She would probably be second after Scott if he didn’t treat Isaac as his second.” Iggy said. “Though, that could change as members are added to the pack.”

“I don’t plan on adding members.” Derek snapped.

“Well then, yours is a stupid plan.” Iggy replied. “You’ll screw yourself and the rest of the pack over if you leave it like this. As it is, I’m shocked you haven’t been contacted by other packs looking to question you.”

“What do you mean?” Allison asked. “You keep saying stuff like that, like something is wrong with the pack, I don’t understand.”

“There is something wrong with the pack and it isn’t just its leader.” Ari scowled. “It’s a pack of nothing but enforcers, even Scott would be an enforcer in any other pack, he’s just more adaptable than the rest of them.”

“What’s wrong with enforcers?” Erica asked.

“Nothing. The issue isn’t that you are enforcers, the issue is the utter lack of any other positions being filled.” Ari told her.

“You look like a war pack.” Iggy added.

“War pack?” Stiles asked. That didn’t sound friendly or like something outsiders would tolerate.

“It’s what packs like Hollow Moon typically start out as.”

That’s what he was afraid of.

Ari took over, “If other packs looked closely they would understand what happened but most won’t look past the obvious. Derek and Peter turned over-powered enforcers and nothing else. They haven’t reached out to other packs, haven’t taken in any omegas, they just turned you. To them, it would appear that the Hale pack is prepping for some hostile takeovers.”

“They think we are going to try to take their territory?” Boyd, this time.

“Exactly, or worse. And the presence of an Alpha pack like Deucalion’s has most packs on high alert as it is.” Iggy said. “Alpha’s can take the powers of their pack if they kill them. It’s less than what a stable pack would provide but it becomes their power completely so it could be far more dangerous. If Deucalion got to Derek or, honestly more likely on his mind, Peter, and convinced one of them to absorb the rest of your powers…”

“It would result in a ridiculously powerful Alpha.” Peter finished. “And a terrifyingly unstable one, particularly if it was me.”

Well, at least he admitted it. Stiles couldn’t help but feel a little pissed on his friends behalf. The Hales had been keeping a shit ton of information under wraps and they had barely cracked the surface.  
Ari sighed heavily, “I’m not worried about that in of itself, neither of you are idiotic enough to go along with that plan, unstable or otherwise.”

Um, that was debatable. Stiles was definitely worried about Peter going batshit on them again.

He was surprised when the older man nodded in agreement with his cousin. “It’d be suicide at best.” He said. “I may be power hungry but I’m not a fool. And my nephew is too loyal to do it. I doubt Duke would even try him.” He paused, “Honestly, I doubt he would even try me. He’s more likely to try to get the Alpha position from Derek and take the power for himself or better, just use the pack as is, merge the alpha pack into this one.”

Iggy frowned, “Is that possible?”

“Sure. If he managed it he could get a druid to drain their spark, back to betas for everyone only now in a war pack as you said.”

“Alpha spark can be drained?” Derek looked startled.

Peter glared at him, “You were always useless in lessons.” He huffed, “Of course it can, how do you think pack mergings happen?”

“Killing.” Derek pointed out.

“Because that would make for a great start to a merged pack. Honestly, did you ever listen to Mother?”

“Oh like you always paid attention to Grandma.” Derek growled.

“More than you did, obviously.” Peter snapped.

“You two must have been hell on your Alpha.” Ari shook his head. “A brother and son going through puberty at essentially the same time? Talia Hale was a saint.”

“Same time?” Allison questioned. “What do you mean?”

Ari glanced at her, confused. “What?”

“Why would they go through puberty at the same time?” Danny asked.

“Well, not exactly the same time but there would be some seriously heavy overlap.”

Suddenly, it occurred to Stiles that only he and Isaac had been present when Ari had mentioned Peter’s age and until then, even he hadn’t realized that Peter was only three years older than Derek.

Iggy spoke before Stiles could, “Not to mention Laura as well. Puberty was a fresh hell in our house with three boys only four years apart. Every time someone hit a peak someone else started. Dad cried a couple times.”

“But…” Scott made confused puppy face.

Understanding dawned on Peter’s face first. Then insult, “Just how old do you think I am?” He growled.

“Uh…” Scott looked around for help. None was forthcoming so Stiles stepped up.

“There is only three years difference between Derek and Peter. He’s a year younger than Laura was.”

Huh, so that’s what Dumbstruck looked like in real life.

“27? You’re 27?!” Erica yelped.

Ari stepped in as Peter growled. “Male born wolves tend to look older than they are. I imagine you all assumed Derek was older until told otherwise.”

True. The only reason Stiles had known was because the articles on fire mentioned Derek and Laura’s age. Now that he thought about it they mentioned Peter’s age as well. Laura was old enough to assume guardianship of her brother at twenty and had technical guardianship over the comatose Peter as well because, though legal, he needed a medical proxy since he was unconscious.

“Its the muscle and all the hair.” Iggy quipped.

“And the burns.” Lydia added. “That explains why you appear to be getting younger looking since your return.”

“Scarring takes time to heal.” Peter muttered. “Even for weres.”

“Oh, don’t look like that.” Iggy scoffed looking at Peter’s annoyed face. “No one is saying that you aren’t hot like the sun, you just look older.”

Ew. Oh, gross. Bad Iggy. Peter was not…

Okay, yes, he was. But the whole psycho thing made him decidedly less appealing.

Mostly.

Sort of?

Stiles groaned internally, damn it Iggy, now he couldn’t stop thinking about Evil Undead actually being an attractive person (if horrifying on the inside).

Great.

“Okay, this is not the point of this discussion.” Ari snapped glaring at his brother. “Peter’s attractiveness is a non-issue at the moment. Back to Pack dynamics.”

“Right.” Stiles agreed. “This position thing, what are we talking here? Like Right-hand Left-hand?”

“Yes, but there are more and Right hand is a little different, just another word for second really and the second’s position can vary.”

“So, enforcers are one position.” Erica said.

“Yes. There are also den-makers, historians, teachers, financiers, etc…” Iggy said. “It’s like jobs but more pre-planned.”

“There are tiers. Like the government.” Ari said. “The executive branch would be pack elders and the leadership succession line in familial packs. Normally that is made up of Tier 1 weres, instinctual leaders. They are calm, level-headed, and organized. Powerful, sure, but not in the same sense as Enforcers. Their power is political, like the president essentially, Alpha’s gain a lot of power when they become Alphas and they share the power of their pack but the physical strength normally lies in Tier 2 Weres, the Enforcers. THe left Hand is the Bridge between the two tiers, a leader and an enforcer at the same time.”

“The brains and brawn quotient in the Left hand is a bit more even.” Iggy adds.

Derek growled makinging Iggy chuckle, “Relax, I’m not calling you stupid, big guy. It’s instinct, intimidation comes more naturally to you than diplomacy. The Left-hand leads the enforcers and does the messy work. They are the ones that tend to lean toward manipulation more than direct intimidation. Guys like Peter and Stiles.”

“Uh, I think you’ll find I fall way to the brains side of the brain-brawn quotient actually.” Stiles said.

“Don’t forget, we are talking about magickal Brawn not muscles and even without knowing what your actual powers are, power comes off you in waves. Like we said, in terms of sheer power you would be Ari’s second which for our kind in generally an enforcer. We are a little different than a wolf pack. Anyways, It’s your brain that puts you on his left, in more ways than one.”

In more ways than one? That sounded uncomfortably ominous.

Peter smirked, “Enforcers are not paid to think, the Left-hand is paid to think differently.”

And that? That sounded even worse.

“Lets just skip this discussion, shall we?” Stiles said. “Peter knows what he does and I really want to get over the info I already know before I pile on any more.”

Ari nodded but Peter made to speak. Ari glared at him. “It is none of your business. Now, back to tiers.” He looked at the rest of the Betas. “Enforcers are the pack soldiers and protectors. In larger packs they ‘enforce’ the Alpha’s will. In small packs they serve to protect the pack from other packs encroaching on them.”

“Explains the war pack issue.” Lydia commented, “A group of soldiers led by a soldier.”

“Talk about Martial Law, it looks like the whole city is a military company.” Danny said.

“Exactly, no balance.” Iggy said.

“Not exactly, The pack includes non-weres which balance the enforcers somewhat.” Ari said. “That is honestly what is most likely holding other packs back from confrontation. But if it gets out that your humans are well, not all that mundane?”

“Or not human at all in Lydia and Stiles’ case.” Iggy interrupted.

“It’s going to look even worse for you.” Ari finished.

“Allying yourself to hunters and Fae? It’s a hell of a dangerous game but it is also your only chance of not being plunged into a war that you totally unprepared for at this point.” Iggy told them seriously. “Like, officially. Which means, Ari has to talk to the Stilinski council and Allison has to talk to her mother. Who I’m guessing isn’t going to like it.”

“No, she’s definitely not.” Allison agreed.

“I need to talk to your parents regardless, Allison. There are things that I need to confirm and things that they need to know. If what I think is true is she will be...easier to persuade to the pack’s side than you think.”

“Um, sure. I’ll talk to her tonight.” She hesitated. “What do I tell her? Do I say that is is about the pack or...?”

“Tell her and your father that a representative of the Stilinski Council seeks audience with the current head of the Argent Hunters. In those words if you can manage it.”

“That’s going to mean something to them?” She questioned.

“It certainly should.” Iggy said.

“They never said anything about Stiles or the Sheriff being anything other than...well, Stiles and the Sheriff.” She said a little tentative.

Stiles couldn’t help but wonder if the Argents might have just...not realized that the Beacon Hills Stilinskis and the scary badass warrior Stilinskis were related. He probably wouldn’t make that connection himself and he apparently was one.

Ari smiled at Allison, “I understand that you have only recently learned of the situation.”

“Yes. My-” She paused looking uncomfortable, “My Aunt forced the issue with my parents.”

She glanced at Derek and Peter sheepishly. Which was really unfair, Stiles thought. Kate might have been the bitch from hell but she was Allison’s aunt, her father’s sister. She had been close to the woman and she shouldn’t have to be afraid of even saying her name in front of her friends.

Ari nodded, understanding, “Then they had likely determined that Uncle Justek and Grzegorz were simply living here not here for a mission or to do any harm to you or them. Being that our clans live among humans more often than not we have a sort of standing agreement with Cursed breeds.”

“Don’t bother us, we won’t bother you.” Iggy said with a shrug. “They probably thought it was odd that they seemed to be the only Stilinskis around, though. We don’t usually venture too far from each other.” He smiled, “Then again, Argents don’t normally venture so far from back-up either.”

Allison frowned “We haven’t lived near family in a long time. I think we did when I was really young but I don’t even remember that.”

“Really?” Ari murmured, “That’s...surprising.”

“Yeah, um Kate visited us sometimes but we moved a lot and she was the only family that we ever really saw.”

He nodded and sent her a gentle smile, “That is fine. They will still know how to respond to my request.”

She hesitated, “Did you want me to call home or…”

“We have many other things to discuss today it will be fine to have you speak to them when you return home this evening.”

“Okay, I can do that.”

“Thank you.” Ari said.

“What exactly does an alliance with the Argents and the Stilinskis entail?” Lydia questioned.

“Well,” Iggy told her, “Cursed breed alliances are really subject to the negotiations of those involved.”

“We will, of course, help facilitate the negotiations.” Ari added. “If possible, I’d like to secure our own alliance first.”

“Have you contacted the council?” Iggy asked curiously.

“I contacted Grandfather who, in turn, will be contacting the council.” He frowned at his brother, “You know very well that I do not have the standing to contact the council directly.”

“Somehow I doubt they would ignore your calls.” Iggy scoffed. He turned to address the group, “We should have news within a day or two then.”

“I asked for a meeting.”

“Really?” Iggy looked at the older curiously, “Why? I mean you could convince them by phone. I mean, I know our kind haven’t allied themselves to humans in quite awhile but the circumstances warrant the request.”

“Yes, well, I would rather get the conversation about breaking tradition out of the way sooner rather than later.”

“Are they really going to fuss over it? I mean if you were able to tell him, he was supposed to know.”

Ari shook his head, “He wasn’t.”

“What?”

“I had to use force of will to tell him.” He rolled his eyes, “This one has been bitching at me all night.” He pointed vaguely at his skull which confused Stiles thoroughly.

“Um, who has been bitching at you?” He asked.

Iggy rolled his eyes, “He can never finish telling anyone, anything.” He sighed, “And I’m the one that was diagnosed with severe ADHD.” He shook his head, “Okay, he at least explained the fates thing, right?”

“Kinda?”

“Rajmund…” He glared at the man in question, “You suck at this.”

“Shut up, I was going to get there eventually.”

“Eventually?” He looked at Stiles suddenly, “He was going to get there eventually.” His head whipped back to face his brother, “When exactly? When he started asking questions about the voices in his head?”

“I have been busy figuring everything out, Ignacek.” He scowled.

“Whatever.” He turned back to Stiles.

“Voices?” Stiles questioned, confused. “What voices?”

“At least your’s hasn’t started talking yet then, once they do they never shut up.”

“My what?!” This was get very frustrating.

“Your Fate. Your own personal puppeteer. The guy,” He winced suddenly and rubbed his temple softly, “or girl, that makes you do what you do.”

“Wait, personal Fate? I thought that it was more of a collective thing?” Stiles asked. He had his own fate?

“Our kind usually have a fate/Dola ratio of 1:1.” Ari said.

“Except twins,” Iggy added, “Twins are always weird like that. Most of the time one fate controls them both.”

“Oh.” Stiles murmured, “And they can talk to us?”

“Yes.” Ari nodded. “Only in our kind normally. I mean, they can speak in any Fae’s mind but wost of the time they do not. Most Fae share Fates, as well.”

“I think at one time we did as well but eventually it was easier to assign fates to individual Dola rather than groups. They can focus on the task at hand.”

“So, your kind,” Lydia said, “Dola, they are more tightly controlled than other Fae?”

“No, less actually. And some even less less than others.” Iggy explained. “The focus allows them to provide a little more wiggle room than they do most fae.”

“That actually make sense.” Allison said. “The more you concentrate on a task the easier it is to meet any obstacles.”

“Exactly.” Iggy nodded. “Though, even then it is difficult for many of us to make the split second choices that the job can require.”

“Why are some Dola more controlled than others?”

“Less controlled is more accurate. The standard is about a third less control over Dola than other Fae but some Dola are able to wrestle more control out of the situation. Ari, for instance.”

“Dola have something other Fae do not...call it a failsafe. Normally if there is danger in a situation we exert enough control to escape it. It is called force of will.”

“Right, but some have more powerful force of will than others.” Iggy said. “Ari has enough control to do things like tell Stiles about us before he was supposed to know. Which is supposed to be impossible. He is the only Dola that has that kind of control over himself.”

“Why is he the only one?”

“Force of will is only supposed to be triggered by an adrenaline response called Surge, it’s our version of fight or flight instinct. Basically, adrenaline floods our system and pushes all of our systems into overdrive which temporarily disrupts the Fates control over us. It normal only lasts a few seconds and leaves us disoriented afterwards. During Surge though, we are twice as strong and twice as fast which is a feat in of itself for some of us. Ari is weird though, he can actually trigger Surge on his own which makes him a huge pain in the ass to the fates. Though, he definitely didn’t reach Surge last night to tell Stiles so I don’t know how he managed it.”

“His fate wanted him to know.” Ari explained, I wouldn’t have been able to do it if his finding out wasn’t written by his fate. The issue was that mine didn’t seem to be getting the message. You don’t have to reach full Surge for something so minor most of the time.”

“Is that a product of whatever you are? The kind of Fae, I mean.” Stiles asked. “Can you manipulate hormone levels?”

“I can, and yes it is a product of what I am, though it is not an aspect of my species.” Ari said. He glanced around the room. “It is a complicated and not entirely necessary discussion at the moment. We have other things to discuss. Jackson and Daniel, for instance.”

“Huh?” Danny looked at him startled.

“We need to figure out training for you as master and Kanima. We can’t let it go on for long. You have to learn to be able to control him in a fight.” Iggy said.

“Not only that,” Ari continued, “you must learn to fight and control Jackson at the same time. Unfortunately you are simply human with nothing to protect you while your Kanima fights and it is essential that you be able to take care of yourself so Jackson can focus on any battle he is in.”

“Okay, I get that, I do, but any battle Jackson is needed for is going to be against supernatural things, what the hell am I going to be able to do against them?”

“Maybe I could ask Dad if you could train as a Hunter.” Allison said.

“I’m not sure if I like that plan, Allison. Sorry but…”

“He would not be able to be a hunter, Allison.”

“Why not?”

“The bond with the Kanima will prevent the curse taking, if you tried it he and Jackson could both go insane.”

“Curse?!” Scott looked nervous.

Allison gaped at them, “What curse?”

Iggy looked confused, “Wait, she doesn’t know? How can she not know?”

“I was afraid of that being the case.” Ari sighed. “Allison, I’m afraid that speaking to your parents has now become significantly more important.”

“But…”

“Can you contact them?”

“Yes.I...just, give me a minute.”

Ari nodded and Allison headed outside pulling out her phone to call her parents with Scott trailing behind.

“I think the rest of this conversation need to wait until we have made contact with the Argents.” Ari said. Suddenly his own phone rang loudly and he checked the ID. “Grandfather.” He told Iggy. “I will return shortly.” He told the group before leaving the room himself.

The room was silent. Stiles glanced around, “Sooo, I’m thinking Pizza for lunch?”

“Stiles.” Erica muttered.

“What? It’s already 1. I’m hungry.”

“Only if one is a Veggie.” Lydia said.

“Veggie pizza.” Stiles made a disgusted face. “Why?”

“Just go order, Stilinski.” Jackson sneered.

“On it, Lizardbreath.”


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Edit: Chapter doubling fixed*

Stiles settled himself on the floor by his father’s bedroom door with a slice of pizza in hand. He had snuck off while everyone else was distracted by Allison’s explanation of her conversation with her parents. Stiles had caught the gist, they would meet Ari and the Stiles’ dad on Tuesday, but he was more interested in what was going on with Ari in the Master bedroom.

Iggy had come back to the living room ten minutes after he and his brother had left.  The conversations were apparently ‘for Alpha eyes only’. Stilinski Alphas. Whatever the hell they should call it.

Stiles was almost certain that Iggy had seen him sneak off but he hadn’t stopped him so he was going to take that as permission to spy.

Stiles finished his last bite and shifted closer to the door trying to hear his cousin. The voice was garbled and the conversation one sided which was annoying but it was better than nothing. He leaned in, ear practically on the door.

“Yes, I know…Grzegorz…wolves…librarian…monastery…”

What the hell? Stiles was totally lost. What monastery?

“Tomorrow…but…understood…yes…”

He nearly gave himself a concussion trying to get even closer. This would be a great time for some convenient Fae powers to kick in.

A kitchen glass appeared, hovering in front of his face. Sitles turned sharply to see Peter smirking at him cooly. “Perhaps this will be of assistance.”

“Oh screw you, Evil Undead.” Stiles muttered grabbing the glass from the man. “Not all of us have super senses.” He grimaced setting the glass against the door. He hadn’t had to do this in a long time. “If you are going to spy, at least make yourself useful. Why is he talking about a monastery?”

“Apparently your little council works out of a monastery in Poland.”

“And the librarians?”

“Yes, that part I couldn’t understand either.”

Stiles stared at him, shocked. “Wait, what? Scott can hear a page turn five classrooms over and you can’t even hear through a wooden door? Have your wolfy senses decomposed even as your body refuses to?”

Peter rolled his eyes. “None of us can hear through the door. I came to see if it was simply a proximity issue.”

“They sent you?” That was less than believable.

“No. They were otherwise occupied. I took it upon myself.”

“Of course you did.” Stiles rolled his eyes and returned to his eavesdropping position. “So, is it?”

“No. It is just as garbled from here as it was downstairs. I seem to be getting on slightly more than you, which is insulting.”

Stiles sighed and pulled back, “So, what you are saying is this is an exercise in futility.”

“Apparently.”

“Great.”

Stiles got up off the ground and brushed off his jeans. “If that is the case, I’m going back downstairs.”

“Did you really think I wouldn’t protect myself and my private conversations from uninvited ears?”

Stiles jumped. “Fuck! Stop doing that!”

“I wouldn’t sneak up on you if you weren’t always doing something wrong, Grzegorz.” Ari chuckled. “You used to be a better spy.”

“Whatever.” Stiles frowned. “What happened?”

“I have a hearing and a meeting tomorrow.”

“Hearing?” Peter questioned curiously. “Why would there be a hearing?”

Ari glared at him. “What business is it of yours?”

“If it has to do with my pack…”

“Your nephew’s pack.” Ari snapped. “Not yours. Not anymore. And besides, it has nothing to do with the pack.”

“Then what?”

“Me.” Stiles said turning to Ari. “It’s about you telling me early, right?”

“Yes, and telling others besides. It isn’t your fault and it isn’t your problem, Grzegorz. It’s a formality.”

“But you are in trouble for it. Can they punish you? Will they?”

“Yes, probably, and I doubt it.” Ari told him with a sigh. “There were extenuating circumstances…” he hesitated, “sort of.”

“Your idea of extenuating circumstances differs from their own, doesn’t it?” Peter scoffed.

“Again, none of this is your business.”

“But it is totally mine so I want to know. Are you going to be in trouble? Will this affect their decision about the pack?”

“Ah. I knew that this had something to do with us. Thank you, Mr. Stilinski.”

Ari growled and shoved Peter, annoyed. “Go away.” He grabbed Stiles by the wrist and tugged him back into the Master bedroom slamming the door behind them. “Annoying bastard. I don’t know how you deal with him.”

“I can hear you.” Peter sing-songed outside the door but made no moves to follow them.

“Fuck off!” Ari snapped.

Stiles watched as Ari unclasped a thick, leather, rope necklace from around his neck and looped it around the door handle three times before re-clasping it with a snap. A large crystal, startling in its clarity, hung from the bottom.

Ari tugged the crystal and turned it twice, muttering something under his breath. Stiles stared as the previously glass-clear bauble turned opaque white in a split second. Ari nodded to himself before turning back to Stiles. “I need to talk to Oridiat to ward it against were-senses.” He sighed, “It’s not a problem I come up against often.”

“Oridi-who? What is that thing? Is that why we couldn’t hear what you were saying well?”

“Well? You could hear me?” Ari asked curiously.

“Just a couple words.”

“More than most Fae should have heard. I wasn’t lying then when I told the council that you were manifesting early. Narrows down the type of Fae too.” He smiled at Stiles. “And yes, it is a little ward a friend of mine whipped up, a Faery, only those with strong Magicks can hear through it.”

“Wait, so you know what I am now?” Stiles asked, excitedly.

“No, sorry. I can narrow it down but it is still up in the air a little.”

“Okay but…”

“No, Grzegorz. You’ll manifest when you manifest and then we will deal with it, we have other things to deal with right now.” Ari sat down on the bed and tapped the space beside him. “Sit.”

Stiles rolled his eyes, “Yeah, ‘cause I’m the puppy in the current situation.”

“You see any wolves here? No? Sit, boy.”

Stiles settled beside him, letting himself lie back across the bed. He stretched and scratched at the sliver of exposed stomach that appeared. Neither of them spoke for a few minutes.

“Are you really in trouble because of me?”

“Like I said, Grzegorz, yes and no.” Ari ran a hand through his hair tugging out a few snarls and combing through his bangs. “If the situation was different I would be in a significantly deeper sinkhole but there are a few other issues plaguing the Stilinskis and, more generally, the Fae at the current moment.”

“Other issues?” Stiles questioned.

“Yes, I will tell you about them when you need to know, Grzegorz, not before. There are many things that we need to deal with here with your pack and the Argents before we start looking into the rest of the preternatural world’s issues.”

Stiles wanted to push. He was getting sick and tired of things creeping up on him in the dark because he was out of the loop. This time though, he let it slide. Ari was right, they had problems to deal with that were a lot closer to home. “Fine. What did they say? Did you get a meeting?”

“Yes, I thought they would. The concerns I have are merited and the idea of a Hunter/Were alliance intrigues them. The Fates as well. Whether they approve or not they will let things stand as they are and see where everything goes. I will appear before the full council tomorrow morning to present my case for making the Hale pack a protected entity under our name.” He sighed. “It has been a very long time since a clan of Warriors has taken a group of Cursed under their protection.”

“What is the likelihood of getting approval?” Stiles asked worriedly, “I mean, you seem worried about the consequences of the pack if they don’t ally themselves to us and the Argents.”

Ari smiled at Stiles, “I am unconcerned. Getting the meeting was the hard part. For all that the Fates would happily be rid of me and my less than obedient nature, they haven’t stopped me yet and I have yet to hear any real contestation from them. The council is a formality, I will have what I want. Now we have to convince the Argents.”

“Allison set up a meeting for Tuesday, it was the best she could do.”

“Tuesday is fine.”

“Okay…” Stiles hesitated. “Ari?”

“Hm?”

“Do you ever hear things?”

“Hear things? What do you mean?”

“Like, I don’t know…laughing or like your thoughts only not at all because that isn’t what you were thinking at—“ Stiles scrubbed a hand over his face. “Shit, forget it. Forget I asked.”

“How long?”

Stiles stared at his cousin confused. “What?”

“How long have you been hearing things?”

“I don’t know. A long time.”

“Guess.”

“Mom’s funeral.” Stiles snapped. “I kept hearing things that made no sense.”

“Like what?”

Ari was frowning deeply.

“Conversations, disjointed ones but it was very strange. It would happen all the time, but not like constantly just frequently.”

“Was this when you doctors upped your meds? When they added the anti-depressants?”

“And the sleeping pills. Dad was bullshit. He hated giving me all that stuff, but it helped.”

“None of us were particularly pleased, Grzegorz. You were a kid and they wanted you drugged to the gills. You barely recognized your own reflection in the mirror.”

“I know, that part sucked but the voices stopped.”

“What about now?”

“It started happening again just before the whole wolf thing started. Sometimes it was like I couldn’t control my own movements and like I would be arguing with myself over every little thing.”

“Oh, Grzegorz.”

“I was scared that I was getting what mom had.”

“Kiddo.” Ari pulled him up off his back and hugged him. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I was scared, Ari! I didn’t want Dad to have to go through it all over again. I hoped that if I ignored it it would go away.” Stiles said uncomfortably. “Look, I just want to know if that is what it was, a Fae thing. I get the feeling it isn’t.”

“It might be. I don’t know, it sounds like you Fate was trying to keep you from doing something. Trying to prevent the whole wolf situation as you said. The struggling to control yourself, the arguments, it fits. The part after Auntie’s death, that is odd. You were still very young to be manifesting enough for your Fate to be talking to you.”

“They can actually talk? Like directly to us?”

“Yes. They can. They can do a lot of things that take some getting used to.”

“Could I have manifested really early?”

“If that was what you were hearing you must have.” Ari pursed his lips, lost in thought. “Had you seen anything weird happening around you?”

“Aside from my mother dying? No.”

“That should not have been the first manifestation. You should have some of your powers before you start hearing them.”

“If I don’t even know what the hell I am how would I know if I had any powers?”

Ari laughed wryly, “You would notice something odd. I mean if you manifested in the last couple of months I could see you not noticing. Whatever it was might have been disguised by whatever crazy cursed crap was apparently going on.”

“Okay, so you’re saying that it wasn’t Fae stuff then. So I was hearing things, like loony bin hearing things.”

“I’m saying, I don’t know, Grzegorz. I have no idea and I have no way of knowing. Given your age and everything else that has happened recently I would say that you have started to manifest and we just need to figure out how. I can’t tell you about what happened years ago when I wasn’t around and you never said a word to anyone about it.”

Stiles slumped “So it could be…”

“Grzegorz, no. You can’t…Genetic or not, it isn’t physically possible for you to get what your mother had. You aren’t human, she was.”

“I can’t?”

“You can’t.”

“Then what the hell was it?”

“That isn’t a question that I can answer.”

Stiles looked at him wearily, “Who can?”

It was the first time he had ever told anyone about what he had gone through after his mother’s death. He had hoped to get answers, not more questions. He laughed to himself, when did things ever go as planned?

Ari stared at him as if he was struggling to come up with an answer. He looked away, “I’m sorry.”

Right.

Stiles was too.

 

 


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promised at least four last week and I delivered but I still feel bad that I didn't get more up for you all so here be an extra chapter for you all. And yes, I will still be uploading for you all tomorrow as per the usual. Normal applies, see a mistake let me know. Happy reading.

What a sight the entire group of them made in the Cafeteria. Half of them were falling asleep in their food and the other half were falling asleep on the first half, and Stiles? Stiles was running on Adderall and caffeine and twitching rhythmically to Scott’s light snores. Danny was the only other member of their little group that seemed even remotely functional this morning and honestly Stiles had seen the guy fall asleep standing around listening to Finstock. His appearance said nothing of his level of awake-ness.

Stiles nodded to himself as the Hawaiian’s head lolled, nearly landing in the slice of pizza sitting, untouched, in front of him. It was seriously creepy to realize that the guy had actually fallen asleep with his eyes wide open.

He wondered how Derek and Zombiewolf had fared considering that they had still been talking to Stiles’ father and cousins when the rest of them had given up and crashed at nearly five this morning.

Stiles was going to need to buy a couple of new alarm clocks for him and his dad on his way home this afternoon. The wolves were not kind to annoying ringing noises in their ears when they were trying to sleep.

The teens jumped when some poor freshman tripped over Erica’s boot and crashed to the ground, tray and all. The kid scrambled to clear up and get out under the vicious glares of the pack and was gone, trailing apologies behind him.

“That wasn’t really his fault, you know.” Allison chided the wolves, though she hadn’t made any move to stop them while he was around.

“I hate you.” Erica growled at Stiles. It lost some of its bite as she burrowed sleepily into Boyd’s arms.

“What did I do?” He asked, offended.

“Your cousin scares me.” She said.

“And that is my fault?”

“No, but I’m not about to tell him that I hate him.”

“No one was stopping you from leaving or going to sleep last night.” Lydia spoke up. “If you didn’t care to hear the information you didn’t have to stay up.”

“Yeah, because I was going to be the only one out of the loop.” The blonde snapped.

“The worst part is,” Danny said “Despite listening to everything I still feel completely out of the loop.”

“He’s not wrong.” Allison said. “I get the distinct feeling that there is a lot more that Rajm…Raj…Ari is not telling us than he is. I can’t tell if he is hiding something or if he is just being absurdly cryptic.”

Everyone turned to look at Stiles who shrugged, “Don’t look at me. I don’t know any more about this business than you guys do.” Okay, maybe slightly more but Ari was right, the Argents senior should be in the know about Gerard Argent’s death before Allison. “I’m as lost as everyone else and apparently I am one of them.”

“So am I.” Lydia responded annoyed. “I still don’t know anything about that.”

“Okay, but as far as I can tell, neither do they. They still can’t even tell what I am until weird shit starts going down around me.”

“It also sounds like there is a lot more going on for them than just what has, thus far, affected us.” Boyd offered. “I’m sure we’ll get caught up sooner or later.”

“Besides,” Isaac added “It’s not like we are strangers to figuring things out as we go along.”

“Flying by the seat of our pants is what we are known for.” Stiles grinned.

“Still, it would be nice to know where we are going before we get there once in a while.” Scott groused.

Lydia turned to Stiles, “Did he say anything about the meeting he had today?”

Stiles glanced down at his cellphone. “It’s only 11:45. He’s not back yet, how would I know?”

“I mean did he say anything about what was supposed to happen?”

“Only that he was confident in things going his way.” Stiles shrugged again. “He seems to think that everything is down to the meeting with Allison parents tomorrow.”

“Great.” Allison groaned. “I’m sure that that is going to go so well. I mean, Ari wants to ally the pack to the Argents officially. Am I the only one who thinks that this is going to end badly?”

“No. I think we all agree that this is going to end in bloodshed.” Erica scoffed.

“Well, it looks like we are out of options.”

“Do you think it is really as bad as Ari made it sound?” Scott questioned. “No one has bothered the pack yet.”

“I think that we have no idea what the hell is going on in other packs’ minds.” Lydia rolled her eyes at Scott. “Not to mention that up until a few weeks ago the ‘pack’” she emphasized sarcastically, “was in turmoil. You weren’t part of it, Derek was struggling to control his newly acquired teen minions, the other one was still dead and Jax was the monster d’jour instead of a pack member. Allison, Stiles and I are still pack adjacent and the remaining Hales’ ability to Alpha is laughable at best. Other packs were probably assuming that we would be more likely to implode than unite into a formidable pack.”

“Once others realize that Jackson the Kanima is officially off the crazy train, under control, and an enforcer  in a pack that is rapidly growing and solidifying and forming bonds with outsiders something tells me they will be a little less stand back and watch and a lot more fix the problem before it becomes one.” Stiles added. “I think we need to take Ari seriously on this one.”

“Well,” Allison said, “It’s all sort of out our hands at this point and the bell is about to ring so I say we leave this to the ones that have some semblance of clue as to what is going on.”

Almost the second the words left her mouth the lunch bell rang and they all stood to get rid of their trash and head off to class.

***

“Anybody home?” Stiles called, entering his house. No answer. His dad was at work and Ari was probably still at his meeting. He had assumed that Iggy would be there though.

He walked into the kitchen to get a drink and spotted a note stuck to the fridge. It was from Iggy, telling him that the elder was running a few errands and that Ari had called saying that he was probably going to be late. Stiles sighed and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and trudged up to his room.

He had been hoping to talk to Iggy about some of this Fae stuff. He had a feeling that Iggy would be a lot less cautious about what Stiles was supposed to know than Ari or the Sheriff. Reaching his room and kicking off his sneakers, Stiles to a swig of his water before collapsing down onto the bed hoping for a little nap before anyone else came home. He sighed, letting his eyes drift closed and pointedly not thinking about anything and letting the world fade to black around him.

***

Naps always left him feeling more tired than when he fell asleep in the first place. Waking up felt like swimming through quick sand. It felt, simultaneously like he hadn’t slept at all and like he had slept for a year. He just wanted to sleep until stopped being tired. In fact, he had no idea why he was waking up at all.

“Grzegorz! Grzegorz! Stiles, come on.” Stiles was pulled from his thoughts suddenly to the feeling of Ari’s hands on his shoulders shaking him…hard. He grunted as he banged his hip against a counter.

Counter?

Wait…

“Ari? What the hell?” Stile pushed himself away from his cousin and glanced around. He was in the kitchen and judging by the pot of water boiling on the stove and the smell of tomato in the air had been in the middle of cooking dinner when Ari had started shaking him. Which was odd considering the last thing he remembered was lying down for a nap. “What am I doing down here? When did you get home?”

“An hour ago, Grzegorz. What are you talking about? You were down here re organizing the cabinets when I got here. You were listening to music but you greeted me when I came in. All of a sudden you kind of checked out while making dinner,” Ari stared at him worriedly, “You nearly chopped your hand off.” He indicated the cutting board which was littered with the makings of a salad. “Then you wouldn’t respond to me at all. Are you okay?”

“I…yeah. I feel fine. I mean I’m tired but…” Stiles hesitated. “Only…only I don’t remember making dinner, or organizing any cupboards, or greeting you, or anything after school besides lying down to take a nap because no one was home yet.” His voice cracked and he tensed up panicked.

He hadn’t sleepwalked since the year after his mother’s death. He would wake up to his father’s worried face twice a week and find himself in the middle of some task that he didn’t remember ever starting, his room torn apart. He glanced up, suddenly wishing for x-ray vision. “I have to go…check on—“

He took off up the stairs like a shot, ignoring Ari’s voice calling him from behind. He shoved open the door to his room and cringed when it required more force than an unlocked door ever should. He wanted to cry as he picked his way across the floor over piles of books and clothes and sat weak-kneed on the edge of the tattered remains of his mattress. “Fucking hell.”

“Oh.” Ari murmured as he entered the room. “Oh, Grzegorz.”

“This isn’t normal.” Stiles whispered. “You can’t tell me that this is normal, Rajmund. I was getting better. I hadn’t done this in years.” He snapped angrily. He stormed over to his desk and grabbed the sheets of paper that were strewn across the top. He thrust them at his cousin. “Look at these. It looks like a mental patient wrote them. Worse, it looks like two or more mental patients wrote them.”

Ari scanned the pages quickly and looked up at him, frowning deeply. “You didn’t have time to read these. How do you even know what is on them?”

“I know the gist. Seen it before, haven’t I?” Stiles said as he gathered up a pile of trashed shirts near the closet. His father was going to be pissed and Stiles was going to need to go shopping. He hated shopping. “Probably something about feeling guilty in about four different handwritings. Some sort of freaky looking drawing of my mother or something. Right?” He tossed a book onto his bed and flinched as the leg gave out and the whole thing crashed to the ground falling to pieces.

“Grzegorz, you’re wrong.”

“About? Oh, let me guess. It isn’t my mom I feel guilty about anymore. Wolves? Kanima? What?”

Ari grabbed Stiles by the arm and pulled him toward the desk again where he spread out the papers. “You asked me the other day if this stuff was normal for Fae. It isn’t.”

“Wonderful.” Stiles snapped.

“But it does have to do with Fae.”

Stiles spun to face his cousin. “What?”

Ari pointed down at the papers. “You didn’t write any of this. I haven’t told you any of this.” He gestured at one of the papers. “This isn’t your handwriting, on that part you are correct, but only one person wrote this. Your Fate.”

“What?”

“The fate that is in charge of your path wrote this down, Grzegorz. It isn’t normal because I have never seen a fate manipulate a Fae’s body while they were unconscious. It isn’t normal because this is not information that the Fates would want getting out. I only glanced at it and my own Fate rails against me to keep me from seeing more. It isn’t normal if this was happening to you after your mother’s death while you were still so young. Something is very wrong but it isn’t with you.” Ari explained.

Stiles felt his jaw fall slack and then snap shut. “What do we do? Is this bad? Dangerous?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well that is just great.”

“What’s done is done for now, Grzegorz. I need time to figure this out.”

“Will it happen again?”

“I have no idea.”

“What if it does?”

“We deal with it.”

“Ari? Stiles? Who left food on the stove? Are you trying to burn the house down?” Iggy’s voice called out up the stairs.

“We’ll be right down.” Ari called out. He turned back to Stiles. “Just…don’t panic. I will figure this out.”

“What if you don’t? I have someone sporadically taking over my body while I am unconscious. Who knows how long this has been happening? Do I just keep going if no one forces me awake? Have I been sleepwalking all this time not noticing?”

“No. You would know. This,” He indicated the room, “is from the Fate’s difficulty in controlling your body without using your brain patterns. The destruction is proportional to the resistance your body and your Fae instincts put up against them.”

“This is accidental?”

“Yes. It would take even a super powerful Fate at least an hour to tune your motor skills to do their bidding. It would be very draining for them as well. I doubt they will try it again for a while.” He glanced at the papers again and flinched. “Shut up. I can only read about a tenth of it and he couldn’t read it if he tried.” He muttered, seemingly to himself. “Oh you wanna go there? Now is not the time pipsqueak.”

“Ah…Ari? I thought it was me with the potential insanity.” Stiles said.

“I’m fine.” Ari said shaking his head. “Sometimes she just won’t shut up. Thinks she knows it all.”

“She?”

“Guys?! Uncle J is home and I think the sauce is burning.” Iggy shouted again.

“Later.” Ari said as he left the room to join his brother.

Sure.

Later.


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning: talk of unpleasant death related things involving characters and children. Possibly triggering.

“Good job, kiddo.” Stiles’ father said as he brought his empty plate to the sink. “Even if that pasta was a little on the soggy side.”

“It was brown rice pasta.” Stiles said as he washed the sauce pot. “Al Dente is not an adjective that really applies to the stuff. It goes from steel to slop in under a minute.”

“Still, it was decent.”

“By the way, the heart issues? Fae don’t get sick right?”

“Not human sick, no.” Ari explained as he put away the grated cheese. “But there are some Fae illnesses that, while not fatal, can appear like human illness and can cause some pretty awful problems.”

“So?” Stiles questioned.

“No, he won’t die of a heart attack if he eats a couple of steaks.” Ari started causing Stiles’ dad to grin. “Yes, it is much better for him to be eating the diet you have been feeding him.” This time his father groaned while Stiles grinned. “But, cut him some slack occasionally and no more tofu, his species does not process soy based products well. Portobello mushrooms make a great meat substitute, much better for him.”

“I can do that.”

“So…” Stiles dad said returning to the table and sitting down. “We have several things to discuss I understand.”

Stiles sighed heavily and dried the pot in his hands just as Iggy finished loading the dish washer with the last plates. “I need a new bed. A steel one, maybe.”

“I see.”

“And new clothes.”

“Right.”

“And I need to pay to replace my Chemistry text book.”

“Great.”

Stiles dried his hands and sat down at the table as well. “Ari says that my Fate took over my body while I was unconscious and that it didn’t have control so it was sort of flailing around.”

“Are you sure?”

“Reasonably so.”

“You woke him up?”

“I did. Eventually.” Ari said with a sigh of his own. “It doesn’t bode well that I had no idea anything was wrong until it started to lose power and control over his body. Behaviorally he was a perfect match.”

“What does that mean?” Stiles asked.

“When a Fate takes over their charge, mannerisms and behaviors warp to match the one in control.” Iggy explained. “Even voices. It is really creepy hearing someone else talk out a person you know's mouth. Usually, the stronger the Fate the more out of sync the two are but only a very powerful Fate could have taken you over while you were unconscious.”

“Okay.” Stiles said. “So it was acting like me on purpose, why?”

“It didn’t want attention drawn to itself.” The sheriff offered.

“No. If that was the case it never would have gone downstairs. It would have done what it had to do and then released control.” Ari shook his head. “If anything, it wanted us to know that we would never know the difference.”

“What good would that do?” Iggy asked.

“I don’t have a clue.” Ari sat there, quietly thinking.

“You…” Stiles hesitated.

“What?”

“The Fates, they control everything. They see what we do, communicate?”

“Yes. At least with most of our kind.”

“Then wasn’t it showing off to them more than us?”

“Huh.” Iggy said. “He might be on to something.”

“Why though? And why give up this kind of info even if none of us can really read it.” Stiles questioned.

“Bear in mind that I was only able to read a few words and, while those spelt trouble, the rest of it could be a cupcake recipes for all I know.” Ari admitted. “Anything is possible and given that we know nothing about this particular fate, I can’t even pretend to narrow down the possibilities.”

Stiles sighed and rubbed vigorously at his eyes. “Fine, let’s just take this step by step.”

“Good plan. Now, what is step one?” Iggy joked.

“Step one is figure out how long this Asshole has been in my head.”

“Unless there were very extenuating circumstances you have the same Fate throughout life.” His father explained.

Right. That made sense. Except…

“This one feels different.”

“How would you know?” Iggy glanced at him confused.

“Is this about what happened after Auntie died?” Ari asked.

“What?” Stiles’ Dad tensed. “Grzegorz, what is he talking about?”

Stiles sighed. “Ari and I think that those night terrors might not have been night terrors at all.”

The older man whirled on his eldest nephew, “You think his Fate was taking him that young?”

“I think that it is possible.” Ari responded cautiously. “I think that he was vulnerable and traumatized and that would make it easy for a Fate to try something.”

“Stiles, you said that it felt different? I thought you didn’t remember what happened?” His father questioned him seriously.

“I don’t, not really, I mean I can remember the feeling I had when I woke up. Today at least.” Stiles shivered, “It’s a really freaking disgusting feeling.”

“But not when you were a kid?” Iggy asked. Stiles shook his head, he had never been woken up in the middle of one of his so-called night terrors as a kid. “So what is the comparison?”

“I guess part of it could be that Ari woke me up this time…” He paused, “I don’t think so though, or not completely. I guess I am comparing the voices.”

“The voices?”

“Like when I was a kid the little voice in my head was a lot less, weird than the one in my head now. Like…It went from Jiminy Cricket to…I don’t even know, the Evil version of Gepetto?”

“More controlling? More adamant?”

Stiles shook his head again. “Opposite, honestly. It seems like lately I have been making a lot of really poor decisions and all I get as a response is laughing.”

“Opposite?” Ari said, concerned. “You have greater control over yourself.”

“Right. Which, great in a lot of ways…like, the ADHD has improved a lot-“

“Your brain has more stimulation as it controls itself. Most of us present with a brand of ADD.” Ari noted.

“Right, but on the bad side…” He stopped. “Actually, I think I just figured it out.”

“What?” His Dad questioned.

“When things changed, just before I went to Scottie’s the night Laura Hale’s body was found. I had this piercing head ache all freaking day, I had to skip my last couple of classes-” His Dad frowned at him. Whoops, probably shouldn’t have said that. Stiles shot him a sheepish smile, “Sorry. Anyways, I heard you on the phone and then suddenly my headache was gone and the next thing I know I’m hanging from the McCall’s roof being threatened by a bat that my formerly asthmatic Bestie had no valid reason to own.”

“So, you were compelled to go to the woods.”

“I guess?”

“Your head hurt?” Iggy asked.

“So bad, you have no clue. It felt like someone was hitting me repeatedly in the head with an axe.”

“That is concerning.” Ari said. “It could have been a different Fate taking over but the question remains, why?”

“I’m guessing ‘why not’ isn’t a valid option?”

“No, not really.” Ari said.

“Not at all, actually.” Iggy rolled his eyes. “There is no precedent for a kid that hasn’t even come in to his powers yet to have a change of Fate. Particularly not a forceful one.” He paused, head tipped as if concentrating on something. “Yeah, He says that the very idea is preposterous.” He told them affecting a stuffy accent.

“Okay, well that means that something else went wrong on that day. We will just have to figure out what that was.” Ari said.

“Except, we don’t have any idea if I have come into my powers.” Stiles looked around the table at his relatives. “I mean, something must have happened to make me start communicating with the Fates.”

“Maybe, maybe not.” His dad muttered. “Trauma can cause early issues with one way communication. Your Grandfather had that happen when he was only ten. He thought he was going crazy.”

“I didn’t know that.” Ari said.

The sheriff nodded, “Yeah, He always kept a good watch on your father and me when we were kids to see if it happened to us as well. Never did though. “

“Okay, that makes me feel a bit better.” Stiles admitted. At least one detail of this mess was no real cause for concern.

“Right, but the weird headache and the, you know, getting dragged into Cursed matters is still a problem. Either you accidently force-of-willed into doing something as stupid as checking out a corpse in the woods or your Fate compelled you.” Iggy said. “Both of these options are equally as strange and, well, bad.”

“The headache could have come from strong force of will, I suppose. But it doesn’t sound like you consciously thought about going and the headache occurred long before then, right? You had no knowledge of a need to go out into the woods before Miss Hale’s body was discovered.”

“No.” Stiles agreed. “Also, I like to think I am not quite crazy enough to want to seek out dead bodies before I even know that they exist.”

Ari turned to Stiles’ dad, “Uncle, when was Miss Hale actually killed?”

“Well, she was sort of torn up and well things were a little confusing which, her being a were certainly explains. At least four hours before she was discovered but not more than 24. At least the is what the M.E. said.”

Stiles nodded, “Evil Undead said that it was sometime between midnight and three AM the day before she was found.”

“Evil Un…”

“Sorry, uh, Peter Hale.” Stiles realized with a start that her murder had gone unsolved or, well, had been declared to have been death by animal. His father had no idea the Peter had killed his niece.

“How would he know, he was in a…He wasn’t in a coma at the time, was he?”

“The whole Derek thing? Right thought, wrong Hale.” Stiles admitted.

“He killed her.” His father said bluntly. “You known this long?”

“Awhile.”

“Right. So Biker Hale isn’t the only fugitive that you were hiding.”

“Okay, one, technically EUD wasn’t a fugitive. He wasn’t even a suspect. And two, I never actively hid him from you, Derek, sure. Isaac, yep. But not Zombiewolf. You could have had him.”

“You actively hid Derek Hale from the cops?

“Ummm…”

“Stiles, what were you thinking…No, never mind I don’t want to know.”

“No, you probably don’t.”

He growled and glared at Stiles, “No, wait. Stiles! You and Scott were the ones who accused him of murder in the first place.”

“Technically he was a suspect in a different murder already.”

“One he was cleared of.”

“Right, and he was cleared of the other one to, so all is right with the world.”

“Right with the, RIGHT WITH THE WORLD?! Not only did you falsely accuse the man twice, you were HARBORING a fugitive!”

“I, uh…”

“And in your own home!” quipped Iggy, unhelpfully.

“And in my own…my own…YOU HAD HIM HERE?”

“In my defense, he did just sort of show up.” Stiles muttered. “What choice did I have?”

“Plenty.” His father said bluntly.

“Look, dad, I get it. I do. But he needed info and well, honestly, I needed his abs to get that information.”

“Excuse me?!”

That came out wrong.

So wrong.

Jesus, so very wrong. “NO! Not what I meant! I needed Danny to do something for me and well…”

“You used a wanted fugitive to seduce a gay kid into doing your bidding?!”

“Okay, it sounds sort of unethical when you put it like that.”

“Jesus, you are the Left hand, aren’t you?” Stiles stared at his father, flabbergasted, as the older man slumped onto the table with a groan.

“Umm…”

Iggy nodded and grinned brightly, “Yep, and he’s going to be a fantastic one. I can just tell.”

“Wonderful.”

“Look,” Stiles backtracked. “Had there been a different obscenely attractive man in the vicinity he would have been unnecessary. Val, for instance. You know I am fairly certain his visit in the fifth grade is what sparked Danny’s realization. Anyways, I worked with what I had.”

“Okay kid, we are going to be having a nice long chat about what is and is not acceptable behavior in this house.” His father barked at him, scowling.

“Right.” Yeah, Stiles saw that one coming.

“Later.” Ari emphasized. “Though, I’m not sure what you expect to get from that, Uncle. You said it yourself, he is our lefthand, no amount of lessons in morality is going to keep him from doing whatever he feels is the most efficient way to get something done.”

“Morality be damned.” Iggy added. “Look at Hale the elder, for instance. Just be glad that Stiles if not anywhere near as fucked in the head as that guy.”

“Right, Peter Hale. The actual murderer.” The sheriff frowned deeply. “I could never charge him on anything.”

“No. As far as the rest of the world knows, he was in a coma at the time of the murders.” Stiles told him. “If you can find something to pin on him, please, do.”

“It would be futile. All he would have to do is tell the truth. Get himself an insanity plea. He’d fail a psych eval with flying colors even if they totally ignored the whole werewolf issue. The man is a whole barrel of nuts. One way trip to the looney bin, except, with his kind of strength there is no way a mental hospital could hold him, even a max security one.” Iggy said.

“Not that any of us would likely pass a psych eval.” Stiles muttered.

“Exactly. Though, some of us would stand a far better chance.” Ari said. “You or I would be in the same boat as Mr. Hale, both of them. Most of the others would be able to squeak by though.”

“ME?!”

“Yes, you.” Ari rolled his eyes at him. “Grzegorz, we would, in all likely be found as high functioning sociopaths. We don’t think like most people.”

“Dude, I have friends!”

“Sociopaths can attach themselves to others, Grzegorz. Indicators would include things like overprotectiveness, immorality, and disregard for those outside of one’s core group.”

“Are you trying to say that I am a sociopath?”

“No, of course not. It isn’t actually possible for Fae to have those types of mental imbalances. We just think differently than humans.”

“I think Hale might be one though,” Iggy said. “which is strange since I would have thought it would be impossible in such a pack centered creature.”

“It is likely, he is still human. Much like Derek is obviously suffering from hyper-vigilance as a result of severe PTSD. I imagine his sister had similar issues before she was killed.”

“Can’t really blame them, I would have PTSD too if I had seen my family burn alive.”

Stiles shuddered, “Did, did they really burn? I sort of assumed they suffocated.”

“Not easy to suffocate a were. The younger members perhaps, but his parents, Peter, his older brothers, and his grandmother would have been burned.”

Stiles’ dad nodded wearily. “It was horrific. The majority of the younger Hales did suffocate though.”

“Majority?”

He sighed, breath stuttering as if recalling a gruesome image. “Peter had been trying to get his youngest niece out of her crib when he burned. We thought he likely caught fire trying to…put her out. She was…he was still holding her.”

Fuck.

Iggy whined low in his throat.

Fuck.

Ari grimaced.

Fuck.

Stiles gagged and shot out of his seat barely making it to the bathroom in time before puking up his supper.

Fuck.

***

Stiles dragged himself back to the table a few minutes later. As he sat down Iggy whispered to him, “You okay?”

“No, you?”

Iggy shrugged, frowning. “Makes me want to annoy the hell out of him a little less. I can’t really imagine what that must have been like for him.”

“I guess I understand a little more about why Derek is so willing to have him around despite everything that has happened.”

“I doubt he even knows.” Stiles’ dad tells him. “The elder Hale doesn’t seem like the type to bring up his heroics. Derek and Laura were already at the station by the time they brought him out. And they made sure to separate the baby from him before they removed him from the home. Sheriff thought it would be best not to tell the kids what had happened to him in detail. All that they were told was that he had been in the upper part of the house and that he had been badly burned.”

“I’m surprised that they left without him. They were each other’s only family you would think that they would at least try to get him transferred to New York with them when they left.” Iggy said softly.

“They did try.” Stile’s dad told them. “He couldn’t be transferred. He…it was a miracle that he survived the trip to the hospital. From what I understand he crashed fourteen times before he finally stabilized. They tried to move him a couple of time but it was a race against time to even get him into the coma ward from ICU. Honestly, I probably should have known that there was something else going on when he survived.”

“I, I saw him before he healed.” Stiles murmured. “He looked like melted wax.”

“You saw him when you were younger too.” His father admitted. “You and Scott snuck away from Melissa one time and ended up in the coma ward. Scott refused to go in but you were always too curious for your own good.”

Stiles remembered that.

He gagged again. Retching at the mental image of the skeletal creature blackened and shiny in areas with slow healing skin and muscle. He has refused to eat any form of meat for over a year after that day. He hadn’t known that that had been Peter.

Now he couldn’t get the juxtaposed images out of his mind.

“Oh my God.” He whimpered. “He, didn’t look like that when he…”

“No, I don’t suppose he did.” His dad stared at his hands. “The hospital took Laura Hale to court over him. Trying to force her to have the plug pulled. They said that there was no way he was going to heal from it.”

“He was brain dead.” Ari said.

“No.”

“What?” Stiles muttered.

“Honestly, he was in a medically induced coma. He was conscious when he was brought in. He was in too much pain though, they had to keep him under because the stress was what was causing him to keep going into cardiac arrest. It makes sense now that I know he is a were. His body was trying to heal damage that was too great for even his healing powers.”

“He wasn’t in an actual coma?”

“No. And given that meds don’t work that well on werewolves he was probably aware during the course of it. I wish I had known. He…the meds would have metabolized too quickly even in his state. He just could heal enough to move.”

Jesus.

Aware and unable to heal.

“So, what you are saying is that he never woke up from his coma.” Stiles whispered hoarsely, “He was never asleep to begin with.”

His father didn’t answer.

And wasn’t that answer enough.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I was feeling really good today and have been super excited to see your comments and kudos (Thanks!!!) so I decided that you deserved another chappie. I'm actually going to go through the rest of Embers this weekend and figure out how many chapters are left (It keeps changing) so I can figure out a good release schedule. I'm already on chapter 17 of the next book, Fury, but I don't want to rush it too much and then be forced to leave you hanging with super long wait times during my finals and then my vacation in the beginning of May. I want to have plenty ready so that I don't box myself into a corner. (I write well under pressure but too much and all my creative spirit just *poof* disappears.)

“Morning!” Allison greeted Stiles brightly as he got out of his jeep.

“Morning.” He returned softly.

She frowned, “You look exhausted. Are you okay?”

“I…couldn’t sleep. I’ll be okay.” She didn’t need to know. No one needed to know. He wished dearly that he didn’t know either.

He hadn’t slept a wink last night. Images of Peter flashed through his mind constantly and all he could think was that he finally understood some of Peter’s issues.

“Are you sure? Maybe you should just call out sick.”

“No.”

God no. And stay home with his thoughts? Not an option.

She watched him worriedly. “Okay. Just, if you feel sick…”

“I’ll be fine, Allison.” He glanced around, “Where is your lesser half?”

“Finstock dragged him and Jackson off somewhere.” She smiled, “Co-captainly business.”

“Right.”

She held out her arm expectantly and he chuckled softly link his arm through hers. “Shall I escort you to homeroom M’lady?”

“Why thank you kind sir.” She grinned at him.

They walked across the parking lot. Stiles noticed a couple of people staring at them, confused. He laughed internally when they moved past a few freshmen and overheard them, “Wait, I thought she was dating that McCall guy.”

She let loose a small snicker of her own. “People are so nosey.”

He held open the door for her as they entered the building. “So, big meeting happens tonight.”

“It does.” She agreed. “Are you coming?”

“I don’t know. My dad is going with Ari but Iggy says he is staying out of it for now.”

“My parents said that they didn’t want me to be there. They actually suggested that I go out with Scott for the night.” She rolled her eyes. “That wasn’t suspicious at all.”

“So that means that you are definitely going.”

“Oh, absolutely.” She smirked. She had been spending too much time with Lydia. “I told Scott to stay away though.”

“Yeah, none of the wolves are supposed to get involved at this stage of the game.”

“Come, please.” She said quietly. “I want to know what is going on but…”

She was afraid.

Stiles nodded. “I’ll be there.” It was the least he could do for her.

“Thanks.” She smiled at him softly.

“What are we thanking Stilinski for?”

Lydia joined them as they approached Allison’s locker. The brunette unlocked it one handed and began pulling out her books.

“He’s going to come to the meeting tonight.”

The strawberry blonde stared at him for a few moments before nodding.

“Good.” She leaned gracefully against the locker next to Allison’s. “If you need me…”

“Depending on how it goes I may need a place to crash for the night.”

“You don’t even have to ask.” Lydia scoffed before turning to Stiles, “You get her to me if she needs out of there. Do not let her drive upset.”

Stiles nodded. “Yes, Ma’am.”

She nodded satisfied. “You look like death, by the way.”

“Thank you.”

“You are welcome.” She linked her arm through Allison’s as the other girl closed her locker. She led the other girl away calling over her shoulder, “Dismissed.”

Stiles rolled his eyes and headed for his own locker. He gathered up the books he would need for his first couple of classes and stuck them in his backpack. Shutting his locker, pressed his forehead against the cool metal and sighed. He pulled out his phone and texted Ari about his decision. All he received in return was a k.

Good enough.

The bell rang signaling that homeroom was about to start and he pushed off and headed down the hall.

***

The day could _not_ be going by any slower, this was ridiculous. Stiles’ head was pounding from either stress or lack of sleep (probably both) and he couldn’t concentrate for shit.

It was only lunch.

Stiles had brushed Scott off saying that he was going outside for a while. Fresh air and all that. His best friend had nodded but looked at him concerned.

He felt bad.

Not bad enough to actually explain why he looked like something that someone had run over repeatedly with a truck, but still, pretty bad.

He wasn’t sure what he would even tell anyone anyways. Oh yeah, remember that wolfy maniac that we all put up with simply because Derek makes us? Yeah, he burned alive trying to save a baby and then remained conscious and unable to move for 6 years while everyone assumed he was in a coma. Scott’s head would explode from conflicted emotions.

“Dammit!” He growled, slumping over onto the picnic table that sat at the edge of the wooded area around the school. No one came there. Especially not after everything that had been happening, no one wanted to be the next ‘mountain lion’s’ meal.

He couldn’t even look the people who had no idea what was going on in the eye. How the hell was he supposed to face Peter?

Or Derek?

Derek might even be worse than Peter. Peter knew what happened to him, Derek had zero clue as to what his uncle had actually gone through. Stiles should not have been the first one to find out.

Or maybe it was Peter who would be harder to face. If he hadn’t even told his nephew Stiles sort of doubted that he was high on the man’s list of potential confidants.

This sucked.

He could pretend not to know…who was he kidding?

Credit where credit is due, Peter Hale could see through an act faster than Stiles could even decide on the script. Besides, Stiles was a crappy liar.

Worse, he wasn’t able to lie at all. Damn Fae genetics! Though, on the upside, he now knew that his frighteningly bad lying skills wasn’t actually his fault.

He would just have to avoid being left alone with the man.

“Now that is the face of a man with secrets.”

Stiles’ entire body tensed as a voice drawled from behind him near the treeline. Jesus fuck! Speak of the devil.

Stiles was going to have to ask if being an absolute jinx was a Fae power when he saw his cousins later on.

“Zombie wolf.” He muttered his greeting, refusing to meet that man’s eyes. “What brings you here…to this place? Um, I mean…it’s a little weird for a guy your age to being hanging around in the treeline of a highschool.”

“Hmm? Ah, my nephew sent me, apparently young Mr. Lahey forgot his homework and I am the obvious man for the job.” He frowned, annoyed, and tossed a folder onto the picnic table in front of Stiles. “You will take it to him.”

“Oh, will I?” Stiles challenged.

“Yes.”

Stiles slumped again. He didn’t even have the energy to actually say no to the older man. “Fine.” Hopefully he would take that as his cue to leave.

Ha.

Right.

“Oh my, now I am intrigued.” Peter said as he took the seat directly across from Stiles. “You are usually so…scrappy. Won’t even look me in the eye, will you Mr. Stilinski? I wonder what I might have done to you now?”

“Nothing. I’m fine.” Stiles struggled to modulate his voice which had become disgustingly pitchy with Evil Undead’s proximity.

Peter laughed, cruelly. “Oh now, this? This is fascinating. This is a side of you I have never seen before Mr. Stilinski. What has you all aflutter? I wonder.”

“Look, I didn’t sleep well last night and I kind of came out here to be alone so if you don’t mind.”

“I’m afraid you are mistaking me for someone who cares about others wishes and comfort.”

And wasn’t that sentence a fucking kick in the teeth.

Shit.

Stiles felt himself wince uncontrollably. Peter tensed up across from him.

“Now, why would you have that reaction?”

Suddenly Stiles found himself being forced to look the older man in the eyes. He carefully tried to avert them without seeming suspicious.

He failed.

“Not a coincidence then. Something to do with me specifically? The pack?” Peter was speaking more to himself than to Stiles. “No, me. Something about me is making you more uncomfortable than usual.”

Peter stared at him as if trying to read his mind. Not wanting to chance the possibility that Peter Hale actually had mind reading powers, Stiles tried to force his mind blank.

Too late.

Peter snarled, eyes flashing that eerie electric blue shade that always shook Stiles up. “What do you know?!”

“Nothing! I don’t know anything!”

“You do. Tell me!”

“I-I…”

Peter’s face went dark. He looked like he was on the verge of changing. “He told you.”

“What? Who?”

“Your damned Father!” Stiles could see the elder man’s struggle to control himself. “He had no right!”

“He didn’t…I mean. I won’t say anything.” Stiles murmured.

“You can’t even look me in the eye. Derek will read you like an open book!”

His fists were tensing and un-tensing reflexively as if he was fighting to prevent himself from simply reaching out to snap Stiles’ neck.

“Look,” Stiles tried to explain, “I didn’t ask, it just sort of came up.”

“Oh, well that is perfectly fine then.” Peter mocked. “As long as it was accidental.”

“That isn’t what I meant.” Stiles held up his hands and tried to make himself as non-threatening as possible. “Look, let’s just forget that I know anything.”

Peter raised an eyebrow.

“No, seriously. I, look, I get the concern but let’s just face it, Derek is nowhere near as observant as you and honestly, it isn’t like you and I have gotten along…well, ever. No one is going to be suspicious if I just avoid you.” Peter seemed to consider his words, though he still looked skeptical. Stiles continued, “Honestly, Peter, it isn’t like Derek doesn’t know what happened to you. The details might be secret but he knows that you burned, he saw the results—“

“He didn’t.”

“What?”

“My living will barred any family member younger than myself from entering a hospital room I was in if I was unable to speak for myself. Laura was allowed to see me, not him. She was my guardian anyways, once Talia was dead.” His voice softened when he spoke his older sister’s name.

Stiles kept forgetting that Peter was younger than he appeared. Although… “Wait, Guardian? You were over eighteen. I mean I guess that you needed a medical proxy but—“

“I was not allowed to be without legal guardianship until I turned 21 due to…circumstances. It doesn’t matter. The point is that he does not know the extent of what happened to me and I would prefer that he doesn’t find out.”

“Does that mean that she knew about…” He hesitated, unsure of what to say.

“She knew that my coma was only medically induced, yes.”

“Did she know that it didn’t actually work?”

Peter’s head jerked up and he stared blankly at Stiles for a moment. He looked vaguely like someone had just smacked him in the face with a two-by-four. “You-what?!”

Stiles realized that Peter had assumed that no one had made the connection to the fact that the medicine was keeping him conscious instead of putting him to sleep. Stiles frowned, “My dad, he realized what was happening to you once he found out that you were a were.”

He scowled, “Of course he did.” He glared at Stiles. “You will tell no one.”

“I swear.”

He meant it too.

He honestly couldn’t blame the man for not wanting his remaining family to ever know. Stiles couldn’t help but think that it would do more harm than good, at least at this point.

“Make sure your family does the same.”

“We would never tell your secrets, Peter.”

“And your pity is unwarranted and unnecessary, fix it. Derek will become suspicious if you begin treating me differently.”

“No worries, I still think you are batshit crazy and more than a little homicidal. I don’t trust you, I don’t like you, and no matter what that is not going to change.”

Peter nodded and stood making his way back to the trees. “Make sure it doesn’t. You have sharp instincts, Mr. Stilinski, and you are right not to trust me. See that you remain that sharp.”

Stiles stared after him until he disappeared into the woods. He glanced at his cell noticing that there were only five minutes left to lunch. He stood and gathered his things before making his way back to the building. He needed to get Isaac his homework anyways.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a massive migraine but I want to update on Mondays and Wednesdays so here it is. I only sort of skimmed it to make sure nothing really stood out to me as being really really wrong because computers hurt right now so if you catch anything let me know so I can fix it. Hope you enjoy.

“Thanks for coming tonight.” Allison whispered to Stiles as they sat on one of the pristine, cream coloured sofas in the Argent’s formal living room.

He nodded and offered her a small smile, “Of course.”

Mr. and Mrs. Argent had disappeared into the kitchen to get drinks only a moment before and Ari and Stile’s dad were having a quiet conversation on the other side of the room. They were standing by an elegant fireplace near a set of immaculately staged bookcases, the kind that were more a display for a variety of decorative pieces and fancy books that no one reads than those that you would actually store your books on.

Everything in the house was perfect, Stiles noted. Not a single thing out of place, at least in the living areas. Stiles had thought he was stepping into a magazine when he entered the house.

Strangely, the model home qualities of the décor did not disrupt the distinctly ‘home’ feeling. Pictures of the family and friends nestled in expensive frames graced nearly every shelf along with Allison’s archery trophies and the occasional kitschy memento from a trip or event. It was strange, Mrs. Argent didn’t seem the kitschy, tourist trap, snow globe and shot glass type.

The women in question entered the room carrying a tray with a pitcher of what appeared to be lemonade and a plate of cookies. More unexpected behavior. Her husband followed with a second tray with six glasses on it ready to be filled. He set them down on the central coffee table before taking the other tray from his wife and setting it down beside it.

“Please, help yourselves.” She told them before taking her seat on one of the two identical armchairs that were sitting near the bank of windows. Mr. Argent poured to glasses of lemonade and handed her one before taking the other chair. Allison smiled and got up retrieving a glass for herself and one for Stiles along with a couple of cookies. She handed the second glass and one of the cookies to Stiles as she sat down.

“Thanks.”

Ari and Stiles’ dad each got their own glasses before sitting down on the other sofa. They were all silent for a few moments, sipping uncomfortably on their drinks.

Well, this was going well.

The awkward silence permeated for a few more minutes before Ari sighed and began to speak. “I understand that this is not a comfortable situation to have to put ourselves in but it is an extremely necessary one.”

Mrs. Argent nodded stiffly, “Of course. Though, I am afraid that I don’t fully understand why you believe that this is a situation that has to do with us.”

“Allison is a part of the Hale pack,” Mr. Argent stiffened and made as if to object. Ari cut him off. “It is done, she has made her choice and there is nothing that either of you can do besides rain disapproval on deaf ears.” He paused. “I understand your contention, I do, however now is not the time to alienate your daughter or her chosen family.”

Stiles’ dad nodded. “I understand your position better than anyone.” He admitted. Stiles stared at him confused. “I am not altogether pleased that my own son has gotten involved in matters of the Cursed but it is already done and he is enough of a man to not waver in his decisions. Despite what we might want for them both, Stiles and Allison have made their choices and their beds and all we can do for them now is support them and help them keep the vows that they have already made.”

Allison’s mother scowled, “She is seventeen, she doesn’t get to make her own vows.”

“This isn’t exactly a legal situation, Mrs. Argent.” Ari told her. “As far as the law is concerned she can make her own friends.”

“And that is what they are in the eyes of human law, a group of friends who hang out. The overwhelming majority of the group are teens like her and the two outliers are not sexually or otherwise involved with any of the younger members of the group. Legally you cannot tell her to do anything that she does not want to.” Stiles’ dad added.

Stiles sighed, how did they even get into this situation?

“She is in a sexual relationship with another member of the so-called group however, she is underage.”

“And a year older than the boy in question. It would have to be a pretty damn stupid cop to try to lay that charge. Particularly since she would not be testifying to non-consent.”

“Okay, whoa, stop. Let’s rewind.” Stiles said loudly, “This has nothing to do with anything and is a huge waste of everyone’s time.”

This was going exactly as he had figured.

Badly.

He sighed and ran a frustrated hand over his face. He turned to face Mrs. Argent, “Mrs. Argent, somehow I doubt you agreed to this meeting to make a fool of yourself and your family skirting around the real issue in favor of foolish arguments.” She scowled at him and Ari made to interrupt him, “No, Stiles is speaking now. Look, you hate that Allison is part of the pack, she is deeply offending your werewolf hunter sensibilities and you feel that this affront must be acknowledged and remedied. Well, it has been acknowledged. Remedied isn’t an actual option at this point. We get that you hate this and that you want nothing to do with the pack or anyone allied with them.” He paused, “We also get that you love your daughter above all else and want her to be safe and protected. And therein lies our quandary.”

“There is no quandary. She leaves the pack.”

“Not happening.” Allison snapped glaring at her mother.

“Mrs. Argent, Allison’s status as Pack is not up for debate here.” Ari told her. “Realistically, we have no say in that matter anyways. We are our own entity and here as an intermediary between the Argent clan residing here in Beacon Hills and the Hale Pack.”

“Intermediaries are meant to be impartial.”

“We are.” Ari sighed. “Yes, we are allied to the pack in question but we are not here to push favors.”

Allison looked at Ari confused, “Wait, I thought this was about allying the pack to my family?”

“Yes and no, Allison.”

“What does that mean?”

“He means that this is more about your family than the pack right now.” Stiles’ dad said quietly. Ari must have filled him in on the suspected issue with the Argents.

“Excuse me?” Mr. Argent questioned, scowling deeply.

“How much do you know about the origins of hunters, Mr. Argent?”

“Not like the history behind your family becoming hunters but like the actual ways a hunter is made?” Stiles added.

“Made?”

Ari sighed, “I suspected as much. Did your father have you complete an initiation ritual when you began your training?”

“Wait, are you talking about that oath thing that Kate made me do before she would tell me anything?” Allison questioned looking nervous.

“The oath is just that, an oath of loyalty to the code and the cause.” Mr. Argent snapped.

“I’m afraid it isn’t. How much do you know about the preternatural world outside of werewolves?”

“Enough to not step on any toes when hunting. We answered you, didn’t we?”

“Right but do you know the difference between the Fae-kin and the Cursed Breeds?”

It was Mama Argent that answered, “The Fae were created as such while the cursed breeds were made through magic.”

“Right. Cursed Breeds stem from human ancestors who accepted a taint or curse in order to procure supernatural strengths and powers. Cursed is perhaps a poor choice of words as those who did not accept the taint consensually could not pass on the traits to future generations. The original taints came from bored Fae with a lack of self-control. Eventually Cursed Breeds ran out of control and honestly, the Fae couldn’t be bothered with human messes.”

Stiles’ dad continued where Ari left off, “After a while regular humans got fed up with dealing with the Cursed Breeds and came to the Fae asking for a way to cull them.”

“Actually, they asked for them to be destroyed but well, the Faes that had created them had grown somewhat attached to their playthings and denied them. However, one of the Fae kings at the time understood their plight and offered them a choice, take a taint and gain the ability to hunt the preternatural or let things remain as they are.”

“He could only offer the ability to fight one type of Cursed Breed to a bloodline and so families that chose to take the taint were chosen to counter individual types of the original Cursed Breeds. For instance, the Palians took the wolves, the Calemars took the witches, so on and so forth. Eventually these clans with taint rituals in hand spread out across the world bringing in new families and causing the fractures system you see in hunting communities today. The Argent are a branch of the former Palian line that was brought to France.”

“Because they only carried an imitation of the original taint it was impossible for the new branches to pass full potential down to their offspring so the rituals became part of individual training.”

“You are claiming that we are like them?!” Mrs. Argent barked.

“Yes. You are, do you think that any dunce with a gun and some wolfsbane could kill a were? More to the point do you think that normal humans can use wolfsbane and mountain ash the way a hunter does? To normal humans it is just dust and poison leaves they couldn’t damage a were if they tried with it. The taint allows Hunters to manipulate the natural world in the same way a Fae would. It gives then supernatural senses and strength, though not as much as say a werewolf.”

Stiles rolled his eyes, “What he is trying to say is, what makes you a hunter and what makes Scott a wolf amounts to the same thing.”

“And we are just supposed to believe you about this?”

“No, the point is that you are supposed to know this already.”

“The fact that you don’t know this information but have gone through the taint ritual memans that you didn’t consent to it and that is—“

“Really bad, apparently.” Stiles butted in. “Uncontrollable genetic mutation bad.”

“Stiles.” Ari snapped at him.

Whoops, too far.

“And what, joining the Hale pack will fix it? Somehow I doubt it.” Mrs. Argent said.

“No, it won’t. The point is that you…and anyone else who took the taint without knowledge and consent aren’t really hunters anymore, you are something else entirely in much the same way as Scott is different from any of the other members of his pack because he was turned without consent. Admittedly it is far more common among the original Cursed Breeds, weres and vampires particularly because their taint is delivered through a physical ritual, than in the Hunters but it has happened before.”

“How can it be fixed?” Allison asked. She looked terrified. “What happens to us?”

“It can’t.” You are what you are Ms. Argent. I’m sorry. It will effect both more and less than you think. You will be stronger and need more training but you can still hunt. Your father has been this way his whole life as was his sister. Gerard made sure of that. It explains much of why every hunting community knows theirs names. They will of course assume that it was a matter of training, of Gerard’s influence. Their strength comes from having been tainted without consent.”

“That doesn’t seem so bad.” She murmured. “I mean it could be worse, right?”

“If…IF we were to believe this, that cannot be what you came to tell us. It is far from being so simple.” Mrs. Argent glared at Ari.

“You are correct. The taint ritual is not something normally discussed among hunters so it is not strange that you had not found out sooner but, if those that consented find out what Gerard did, what you and your family are, they would likely turn from you…or worse.”

“They would hunt us.”

“You are a threat. You would not be the first.”

Chris smiled wanly, “The only way to protect Allison is for her to be in the pack. They can keep her safe.”

“Yes, with the backing of the Stilinski clan and in turn the Fae-kin. Though they are in danger as well.”

“Yes, I had noticed.”

Ari nodded. “They didn’t know better. The problems with a small family pack. Neither Peter nor Derek were ever trained to be potential Alphas; even Laura would not have been trained to choose whom to bite in order to keep the pack balanced.”

“They are a war pack. That was the validation that Kate tried to give the hunter’s council when she came in response to the attacks.”

“A pack of enforcers, no balance. Other packs will realize what has happened soon enough. They will try to eliminate the threat.”

“Even the pack humans are fighters, perhaps more so.”

“Humans is not the correct term but yes.” Ari agreed. “Though Grzegorz cannot technically be a part of the pack he considers himself one of them and will fight beside them which means that my brothers and I, and eventually our youngest cousin, will fight for them as well.”

“A huntress and a dola. Any pack would see them as a war pack, without question.”

“Perhaps they are, even if they did not mean to be. They need time to balance, thought nothing will lessen the strength that they have acquired. They will always be a dominant pack. For a pack as small and as young as them to have a left hand and non-were allies is unprecedented.”

“Did he not become the right hand?” Mrs. Argent looked startled.

“You can’t just take a left hand and make him a right hand. It would be chaos. Peter Hale remains the Left hand of the Hale pack.”

“I see.” She frowned. “And the Emissary?”

“The what?” Stiles asked.

“They have none. They go to Talia Hale’s for guidance when needed, that will have to be corrected.”

“Wait, wait. What the hell is an Emissary? I mean, I know what an emissary is but I hear capital letters.”

Allison’s dad sighed. “They really are uninformed, aren’t they.”

“That is not in the beastiary.”

The older man raised his eyebrow, “And how would you know? I believe I gave that to my daughter as part of her training.”

Stiles let his mouth fall open weakly as he scrambled to find an appropriate answer. Allison saved him, “I don’t read ancient Latin, Dad. Stiles and Lydia had to translate it for me.”

“I suppose you bartered this with the right to research in it?”

She rolled her eyes. “Like you didn’t know.”

He sighed and shook his head. “I suppose it is what it is. You are correct though, Emissaries don’t fall under the purview of the Argents despite their connections to were packs and therefore are not in the Beastiary.” He glanced at Ari to see if the younger wanted to take the explanation but Stiles’ cousin gestured for him to continue. “Emissaries are essentially advisers to were packs, typically witches or druids. They help to maintain balance in packs as well as provide magical back up.”

“Magical back up?” Allison asked.

“Deaton.” Stiles summed up. “He’s the emis…sorry, Emissary?”

“He was Talia Hale’s Emissary. There have been three alpha’s since her and none have reaffirmed his bond to the pack. He is no longer the Hale Emissary.”

“So we, well, Derek has to ask him to be the Emissary again?” Allison asked.

“It isn’t so simple. The bond of trust isn’t there anymore. Derek would be better off finding a new Emissary for the pack.” Ari explained. “He does what he feels he should in Talia Hale’s memory but he holds no attachment to the new Hale pack.”

“He helps us!...Sort of…sometimes…” Allison offered.

“He’s very cryptic,” Stiles agreed, “But we get there in the end.”

“I’m sure you do.” Ari smiled, “The pack has intelligence in spades…at least at the outskirts.”

“He’s not wrong,” Allison said with a laugh, “It is usually you or Lydia or…well…”

Peter.

“You guys are the ones that figure it out.”

“Yeah but, without Dr. D we would get nowhere fast.”

“Not fast maybe, but you would get there eventually.” Ari said. “That is beside the point. I am sure Dr. Deaton tries to help but he does not take the place of a true Emissary.”

“We have gotten off topic.” Stiles’ dad said. “We need to discuss the matter of the Argents and the Hales.”

Ari glanced around the room, his gaze settling on Allison’s parents. “We have said our piece. The choice is theirs. This is not something that can be decided in a moment’s time. I think it is time for us to leave and allow the Argents to speak frankly as a family.” He stood, Stiles and his dad following suit. “We will be awaiting your decision. Feel free to contact me with any questions.”

Stiles nodded at Allison as they left and she offered him a small smile. She would get the answer she wanted, he knew that. The Argents had raised a leader and a stubborn one at that.


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fillery chapter, sorry, but we are heading toward the end of Embers pretty quick and the real action begins in Fury. Anywho, I kind of like chapters like this, both in reading and writing, It allows you to stop and really think about characterization and where the plot is going. I find that they actually increase suspense for me. Then again, I could be the only one.
> 
> Thanks to everyone for the comments and Kudos, I love it!! I've gotten some really great questions which I love answering so feel free to ask away if you feel something needs clarification, granted a lot of the information will come up later in the story but it is always fun to figure out how to answer you without revealing key spoilers.
> 
> Love you, readers!  
> ~Dire

“So how’d it go?” Scott asked as he settled into the passenger seat of the jeep.

“Dude, did you run here? I was coming to pick you up, remember.”

“S’faster.”

“No. It isn’t. We have to go by your house anyway, numbskull.” Stiles sighed and started the car. “The whole reason I was picking you up was because we were picking up Erica who lives like three houses down, remember.”

“Oh, right.” Scott scratched at his head thoughtfully. “I forgot. I mean, we have never picked her up before, it happens.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Why are we picking her up again?”

“School project thing, her parents couldn’t drop her off and Boyd picked up an early shift at the ice rink.” Stiles told him with a sigh, it was only the fifth time since Erica’s text last night that he had explained it to Scott.

“Right, right.”

Stiles pulled up in front of Scott’s house where Erica was standing balancing some sort of model on the mailbox pole. She glared at Scott when she caught sight of him. “You are an idiot.” She growled, eyes flashing.

“Sorry, I forgot.”

“Whatever.” She jerked open the tailgate and slid her project inside. Slamming it shut behind it and stomping to the back door. “At least Stilinski remembered.”

“Whoa, chickadee, watch the doors. She’s fragile. And also, she did nothing to you so watch yourself or you and your project can run to school.” Stiles frowned at her and gently touched the side panel of the door as if to reassure himself that she was okay. “Did the mean lady scare you?” He murmured quietly.

“Your fixation on this piece of junk is troubling.” Erica muttered.

“Nobody asked your opinion.”  He snapped as he pulled away from the curb. The rode in silence for a few moments before Scott spoke up.

“Wait, you didn’t answer me. How’d it go last night?”

“Hm?” Erica questioned.

“Stiles went to Allison’s house with his dad and Ari last night.”

“Oh, right. I forgot that was happening. What happened?”

“We talked to them, they talked to us, yadda, yadda…we don’t have an answer yet. Allison might know something, ask her.”

He wasn’t going to start spilling secrets without permission. He was not going to be the one who screwed the whole thing up, thank you very much.

“You are entirely unhelpful.” Erica groused. “Don’t know why we keep you around. It’s not like you’re all that pretty.”

“I appreciate that.” He rolled his eyes. “This coming from the girl who had a massive crush on me up until a couple of months ago.”

“We agreed not to talk about that.”

“We did no such thing.” He laughed, “Once a Stiles fangirl, always a Stiles fangirl.”

“Shut up.” She snarled.

He grinned at her in the mirror as he pulled into a parking spot at school. “It’s like you don’t even know me.”

He turned off the car and grabbed his bag from behind the seat as Erica and Scott got out of the car. Erica retrieved her project from the trunk and took off without looking back. He sighed and turned to Scott…

“It’s like she is embarrassed to be seen with us.”

Only to find his best friend halfway across the parking lot, “Okay, that’s just mean!” He shouted after him. “I’m totally charging you people for gas next time!”

“Wouldn’t it make more sense to just not drive them?”

Stiles spun around to find Danny getting out of his car behind him.

“I guess, but that would be mean.”

“Right.” Danny stared at Stiles for a moment before shaking his head. “Whatever you say. I wanted to talk to you about something.”

Stiles sighed, “I’m not talking about what happened last night. Ask Allison.” He repeated.

“What? No, not about that. Good to know, though.” Danny said. “I guess I really wanted to talk to your cousin but well, A: he seems busy and B: He is a little on the intimidating side.”

And if Danny was admitting to that it said something, the guy was as outgoing as they came.

“Right, yeah, I can see that.” Stiles offered, “What’s up?”

“This whole Kanima thing…just, is it supposed to be so draining?”

“Draining?”

“Yeah, I just…Don’t get me wrong I want to help Jax but I feel like he’s sapping all the life out of me. I feel like shit and it’s like, it simultaneously hurts to be around him and to be away from him.”

Stiles stared at the other teen. “I’ll be honest Danny, I don’t know. I can ask Ari for you but I think it would be better if you talk to him yourself.”

Danny sighed, “I figured you would say that. I hoped you wouldn’t but I knew you would.”

“Sorry.” Stiles shrugged, “Look he’s not as scary as he can seem sometimes, admittedly he’s not in the most steller of moods since getting here but there is a lot of shit going down right now. But he’s not going to take that out on you.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Danny opened his trunk and grabbed his bag. “Could you set something up?”

“I can give you his number if you want.”

“Right, you are not going to make this painless for me, are you?”

“Nope.” Stiles laughed and scribbled the number on a piece of paper from his backpack. “You are going to have to get over your Ari fear. Scott had to do the same thing.”

“Great.” Danny said, tucking the paper into his pocket. “Fuck you, Stilinski.”

“Seriously, he isn’t that bad.” Stiles called after the quickly retreating boy only to receive an obscene gesture in return. “Rude!”

***

“Your friend Daniel called.” Ari called from the kitchen as Stiles walked into the house. “He’ll be coming over later to talk.”

“Well good for him, working up the nerve to call the scary Ari-monster all by himself.” Stiles scoffed as he opened the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water. “He was practically wetting himself when I told him he had to call you on his own.”

“Really?” Ari asked, “He sounded fine.”

“Dude, even I could tell he sounded tense and freaked out.” Iggy laughed from behind the book he was reading. “I think I heard him whimper when you picked up. I bet he was hoping for voicemail.”

“Probably.” Stiles chuckled. “If you guys are going to be around for a while we should probably work on conditioning the masses to Ari’s presence. For such a dork you certainly scare a lot of people.”

“Please don’t call me that.”

“What, Dork? Would you prefer nerd or geek?”

“I would prefer my name actually. Or at the very least, Ari.” He rolled his eyes.

“It really bugs you, doesn’t it?” Stiles said, leaning against the nearby counter, “That we use nicknames, I mean.”

“I like our names.” The older man huffed.

Iggy shook his head, “Dude, it’s not like we hate our names…they just make other people confused and nervous for some reason.”

“Right? Like they think we will be mortally insulted if they don’t get it right in one shot.” Stiles laughed, “I mean, I mispronounced my own name when I had to introduce myself in kindergarten.”

“Val had the hardest time understanding the alphabet growing up,” Ari chuckled, “he just could not get why W sounded like V in has name but not in anything else.”

“I still can’t figure out why your name sounds like it has an invisible A at the beginning.” Stiles admitted to his eldest cousin.

“What about all those z’s in yours?”

“Dude, if names were allowed we would rule scrabble.” Iggy joked.

“That we would.” Stiles agreed. “Back to the matter at hand, Danny. He tell you what was wrong? He tried to explain it to me but…”

“I think I know what the issue is, hopefully I can provide some temporary relief until he gets more psychic training.”

Psy—Psychic training?!

“Jesus fuck, why do I live in a fantasy novel all of a sudden?” Stiles groused. “So, psychics are a thing?”

“Not in the sense you are thinking, its closer to science than magicks in reality.”

“Like Biofeedback, sort of.” Iggy offered. “More impressive than meditation but significantly less impressive than say bending a spoon with the power of thought.”

“Damn, so no telekinetics then?”

“Sorry, closest you can get to that is through magicks manipulation which means something besides your mind is doing all the heavy lifting.”

“Still, sounds pretty cool to me.”

“I’ve heard that it is a lot less impressive in practice than it sounds in theory.” Iggy said with a shrug. “I’ve got a buddy that can do it but it takes like ten times more energy to lift a pencil with magicks than it would to, you know, lift the pencil yourself. Most Fae that can do it don’t even bother.”

“That sucks.”

“Stiles, you have no idea how many Fae would love to be able to do some of the things that Humans have come up with as ‘magical powers’.”

“Further still, most Fae don’t even have the ability to manipulate magicks. Only certain types can and even then each type has a very particular sort of ability.”

“Seriously? So, no magic spells?”

“That is mostly the purview of Humans; witches, druids, and their ilk.”

“So basically the Cursed Breeds or whatever have it a lot better than us. They can do whatever they want and we are sort of just stuck.”

“There are pros and cons to both sides, Grzegorz, you’ll learn that soon enough.”

“Right.” Stiles sighed, “So, should I be here for this or should I make myself scarce?”

“I would prefer if both you and Ignacek vacated the premises. Daniel may find it difficult to get comfortable with others around and he needs to be relaxed for my work to take.”

“Sure, yeah.” Stiles nodded. “Try not to scar him for life or anything or like give him Ari-centered PTSD.”

“Your faith in my ability to coexist with others astounds me.” Ari frowned at him. “He has no reason to afraid of me. I will not hurt him.”

“Sure but it’s going to take them all some time to figure that out.” Stiles sighed, “Guess I am going to have to find something to do tonight.” He turned to Iggy, “What are you doing?”

“Jungle.”

“Why did I even ask?”

“What, I can’t have fun?”

“You’re straight.” Stiles deadpanned.

“So what?”

“Though he leans very heavily to the side of women, more so than most Fae, generally speaking Fae have very fluid sexualities.” Ari said.

“Technicality.” Stiles looked at his cousin, “Would you bang a guy?”

“Nope. Not even if you paid me. I’m not attracted to guys sexually in the least.”

Stiles smirks at Ari, “Straight.”

Iggy continues, “I’ve dated guys though, I like ‘em well enough just could never get past that little plumbing issue.”

Ari sighed, “Fluid. Panromantic to be specific. A minority by Fae standards but not entirely unheard of.”

“Wait, when have you ever dated a guy?”

“I’ve dated like four guys, Stiles.” Iggy said. “Two of which were ace, which actually went really well.”

“Accept for the fact that fact that you are not asexual and are in fact rather attached to your libido. Though if I remember correctly your last boyfriend offered to have an open relationship.”

Iggy sighed, “He didn’t mean it, besides, I don’t cheat. He deserved more than that and so would any girl that I would have been with.”

“Okay then.” Stiles sighed, “That’s actually really cool of you.”

“He didn’t think so.” Iggy smiled sadly. “He slapped me hard enough to bruise.”

“He slapped you for not wanting to cheat on him?”

“I think it was more the breaking up with him because I didn’t want to cheat on him that was the issue. I suppose I should have seen it coming but Jaime, the other ace guy I had dated, had understood and well…”

“Yeah.”

The room was quiet for a moment before Stiles phone rang suddenly and with an unknown number. “Who?” He murmured walking out of the room and up the stairs before taking the call. “Hello?”

“You have access to his books now, yes?”

Wait, what?

“Zomb—ah, Peter? Peter Hale?”

“Yes, Mr. Stilinski.” Stiles could literally hear the older man role his eyes. “Answer the question.”

“Okay, you called me, asshole. Don’t be snippy.”

“I am not being snippy.”

“Great comeback.” Stiles flopped down in his desk chair. “Now what do you want? How’d you even get my number?”

“All of the Betas have it and none are all that observant while in the den, they need to work on vigilance.”

“Did you pick-pocket someone’s phone?”

“I put it back.” The older man reasoned, “She never noticed it was gone. I am already drawing up plans for sense training.”

“You stole Erica’s phone to get my number?” Stiles said confused. “Why?”

“To see if I could.” Peter snarked. “I need one of your Alpha’s books.”

“Right, so you want his number?”

“No, I don’t want his number.” He growled. “I want you to get the book and bring it to me.”

“Without him knowing?”

“I honestly don’t care if he knows.”

“Then why not call him for the book.”

“Because I did not want to Stilinski. Now, I will send you a text with the name of the book and an address. Get it and meet me there at seven.”

“Wait, what the hell?”

The call ended abruptly and Stiles stared at his phone. A moment later the tone indicating a new text sounded.

“Everything all right?” Ari asked from the doorway, eyebrows wrinkled in worry.

“Yeah. It was Evil Undead. He needs a book.”

“I see.”

Stiles opened up the text and showed it to Ari. “He said he didn’t care if I told you which is kind of weird given that he didn’t want to talk to you.”

“He wants you to take it to him?”

“Yeah, at seven at this address which is uncomfortably similar to the address of the warehouse we trapped Jackson in.”

“I see.” Ari stared at the text for a minute before handing the phone back to Stiles. “I will get it for you and another that I think he may find helpful.”

“Wait, you don’t even know what he needs it for.”

“I have an idea, I am not opposed to him researching the topic. I would like you to offer your help, though.”

“What? You want me to help him? Like spend time with him?”

“It would not be remiss for you to spend some time with another Left hand.” Ari sighed, “Particularly this one.”

“B-but Ari! I don’t want to.”

“I think you will find that in this circumstance you will gain more than the discomfort you feel around him.”

“But…”

Ari walked out of the room.

Damn.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi again! I have been thinking a bit and wanted your opinions on things. As you can obviously see I have all but given up on chapter summaries but I kind of love the idea of giving you a brief snap of what sort of emotional state I was feeling when I wrote the piece, which is what I feel a chapter summary should be. Now, my first great love is music (not making it I have never been able to stick with an instrument for long) and I am never not listening to something (Except in class because that would get dirty looks from my professors) and I often draw my inspiration for songs and music. Point is that I am considering using lyrics as summaries and linking the song. The thing is, a lot of them may not be in English as I listen to a lot of K-pop, some German, and some Japanese as well as a English music. Obviously I am not forcing anyone to pay attention to the lyrics or listen to the songs but I wanted to hear your opinions regardless. I will probably at least make the summaries and titles but you decide whether or not you want links to the music. Let me know.


	21. Chapter 21

This was uncomfortable in so many ways.

Stiles watched Peter set up the third computer monitor in the past ten minutes. He hadn’t spoken since Stiles had come in, if you could call a grunt of greeting speaking.

SO many ways.

“So, I mean, if you don’t need me or anything don’t feel obligated to let me stay. I just thought I’d offer.”

“You can’t lie, your Alpha told you to help me.” He said not even looking up.

“Right, but you don’t have to feel obligated to—“

“It will go faster with two.”

Right.

So, he was staying then.

Fine.

“So, what should I do? What are we doing?”

“Research.”

Helpful.

“Okay. On What?”

“Something important.”

This was going nowhere fast.

“Right.”

More uncomfortable silence followed.    

“Important, huh?”

Peter sighed and stared at Stiles annoyed, “Yes. If you would leave me alone long enough to get us up and running it would be appreciated.”

Stiles took ‘appreciated’ as ‘I may not actually murder you’.

He mimed zipping his lips and started playing on his phone.

What seemed like hours but was probably only minutes passed and Evil Undead made a noise of approval. Stiles glanced up from the tiny farm on his phone to find that the table was now covered in computer equipment. He counted at least six monitors running off two laptops, one of which he recognized as his own. Peter had taken it from his bag at the same time as he took the books.

He was going to have to change the password, EUD had cracked that distressingly quickly.

He stood up and walked over to the table sitting at the seat by his laptop. “We all good then?”

“Yes. I have installed a program on your laptop that will allow you to access the information you will need.”

“Right.” Stiles stared at his screen blankly as Peter typed on his own set up, “You know I still have no idea what we are doing. Or you know, looking for.”

“I know that Mr. Stilinski. You will be receiving the information you need momentarily.” Sure enough a beep sounded from his laptop a few seconds later and a download showed on screen.

He clicked it once it had finished downloading opening a huge string of code that he had no clue what to do with. “Uh?”

“Close it. Open it with whitetracker.”

Stiles closed the windows and did as the other man said. This time a map of the West Coast appeared on screen with a large star over Beacon Hills. Smaller stars in a variety of colours dotted the rest of the map. He glanced at the Legend on the side of the screen and realized that the each star had a corresponding name the largest one being Hale.

“These are packs.” Stiles said. “This program tracks werewolf packs.”

“And their territory. Click on one of the stars.”

Stiles clicked on the Hale star and noticed that the territory, highlighted in the same color as the star itself, was a lot larger than he had been led to believe.

“Whoa, wait. This is like five different towns.”

“Yes, our Pack has always controlled a large area given its small size.”

“But, I mean…Derek and Laura moved to New York. Is this updated?”

“It should be. It is not my program, all packs have access to it.”

Stiles wasn’t sure why that was startling information to him. It made sense for were packs to keep track of each other and their territorial boundaries. He guessed it was probably the fact that this tracking was done by computer that threw him off.

“Other packs just let your territory stand empty?”

“My sister was well liked in the community it would have been seen as disrespectful to her had they tried to take the land with a member still present and it would been viewed as honor-less to take the territory of an incapacitated pack.”

“So even though you were supposedly in a coma you were still seen as a member of the Hale pack residing on Hale land.”

He nodded even as his eyes scanned over the maps and data in front of him. “Unless I left or died a member of the Hale pack remained in territory.”

“Oh.” Stiles stared at his screen.

“I need you to map the territorial borders of all packs around the territory. The program can be opened in multiple windows to make it easier. I need names and territory sizes.” He pushed a paper map toward Stiles.

Stiles nodded, taking it, but hesitated to begin his task. “Why?”

“What?”

“Why are we doing this?”

“Threat assessment.” Peter rolled his eyes. “Obviously.”

“Because they will try and take the territory now that the pack is gaining strength?”

“Yes, and no. Do what you are told or don’t. I care little.”

Stiles stared at the top of the older man’s head as he poured over the books in front of him. He turned to look at the screen once more. He stared at the multitude of stars dotting the screen.

This would take time.

***

“Yo.” Stiles called out as he entered the house. “I’m back.”

“You are.” Ari agreed. The older man was sitting on one of the chairs by the window reading something that did not look English. “How did it go?”

“Fine I guess. It’s going to take me awhile to get through everything.” Stiles set his bag by the door and started toward the couch, only to find Danny sprawled across it dead to the world. “He’s still here?”

“Yes, he will be staying the night.”

“Right. How’d that go?”

“He is easy to work with. Flexible. Little phases the boy.”

“Were you able to help him?”

“For now. I have made a few calls as well, friends that may be able to help him further, I am not great at this stuff.” He smiled. “He should be able to handle things better now that he understands the issue, he is intelligent, quick-witted as well.”

“That’s good.” Stiles hesitated. “Peter has me looking into the pack borders around the Hale territory.”

“I thought as much.”

“How’d you know? Those books have nothing to do with it.”

“They do. I am surprised that he knew that that book contained the information he would need, though. He knows more about the Fae than he lets on.”

“What is in them? It looked like they were history books.”

“They are. Well, the one that he asked for is. It contains information on the last true war pack or at least the territory war that they sparked.”

“And the other book?”

“Contains all that the Fae know and understand about were packs. If he seeks to understand what makes them different, what makes them stronger than other packs, and what makes them a threat he will have to understand what makes a normal pack first.”

Stiles nodded in understanding. Danny shifted on the couch with a grunt.

“You should get to bed, you have school in the morning.”

Stiles smiled at him and stretched, “Yeah, probably a good idea.” He glanced at Danny again, “Did he call home?”

Ari nodded. “Jackson dropped him off though, he will need to ride in with you tomorrow.”

“Yeah, sure.” Stiles grabbed his bag and headed to the stairs, “We have practice tomorrow.”

“Hm?”

“Lacrosse practice. I’m benched so I sort of just skipped it on Tuesday but I should go tomorrow before I get kicked off completely.”

“Go ahead.” Ari laughed. “Don’t change your patterns, Grzegorz. When is your next game?”

“Uh…Friday actually.”

“Then you should go. We’ll come to the game.”

“I’m not going to play.”

“Still your team.”

“Whatever.”

“Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

***

“You. I need to talk to your cousin.”

Stiles sighed as Lydia’s voice echoed across the parking lot. Danny snickered as he closed the door of the jeep after grabbing his backpack.

“Yes, your highness?” Stiles greeted her. Scott and Allison trailed behind the redhead, Scott carrying Danny’s Lacrosse bag on his shoulder which Danny took from him as soon as they got close enough.

“Thanks. Where’s Jax?”

“Trying to convince Finstock to actually let him play tomorrow after everything last week.”

“Right.” He laughed, “How’s that going for him?”

“Considering the other choice is Greenburg? Pretty great.”

“Why am I not even an option?” Stiles whined.

“Mostly because he doesn’t even remember you exist half the time.” Danny told him. “If we are down enough for Greenburg to be an option you’ll be first alternate in the game, though.”

“True!” Stiles grinned. “Wait, why are we down enough for that?”

Which was a stupid question now that he thought about it, Daehler for one.

“Apart from the one that is dead? A couple of the seniors are failing classes, academic probation. Which you would have known if you showed on Tuesday. Or Monday morning. Or Saturday for that matter.” Danny said, “You wonder why Coach has no clue who you are.”

“Hey, I have been busy.”

“True.”

“Okay, bring it back to me.” Lydia snapped. “I need your cousin’s number, now.”

“Why? Also, Ari or Iggy?”

“Rajmund.”

Of course she would pronounce it perfectly in one try.

“Okay, sure.” He gestured for her phone and she frowned at him before handing it over. He quickly entered in the contact. “Any particular reason?”

“Not your business, Grzegorz.”

“Oh God, you are not going to be calling me that all the time, are you?”

“We’ll see.” She turned to Allison. “Let’s go, I have to stop at my Locker.”

Allison smiled and pecked Scott on the cheek, “See you later.”

Scott, Danny, and Stiles, laden with Lacrosse bags headed to drop their stuff in the locker room for the day. The coach was in his office by the time they got there and Jackson was shoving something into his locker annoyed.

“Hey.” Danny greeted him. “What did Finstock say?”

“I’m in for the game.”

“That’s good, though.” Scott said confused, “Why do you look so pissed?”

“Shut up, McCall.”

Stiles rolled his eyes. “Don’t tap the tank, Scottie. Spooks the fish.”

“I’m not a fucking Fish.” Jackson growled at him.

“Jax, calm down. Now.” Danny snapped at him.

“Whatever.” He snapped his locker closed and headed for the door, Danny closed his own locker and followed him out.

“See you later.”

“You drove Danny today.”

“What can I say, apparently I have officially become the Hale pack taxi service.”

“He doesn’t live near you and he has a car.”

“He spent the night last night. Or, well he passed out on our couch by the time Ari was done with him.”

“Oh.” Scott closed his own locker door only to have his bag get caught on it. “Crap.” He unlocked it again and shuffled stuff around to make it fit.

“Yeah.” Stiles stared at Scott for a moment, watching him struggle. “You okay?”

“What?” Scott glanced up at him. “Yeah, fine.”

“You don’t look it.”

“Don’t know what you mean.” Scott refused to meet his eyes, if there was a worse liar than a Fae it would be Scott McCall.

“Yeah, sure. What’s up, man?”

“Nothing…” Stiles could see Scott’s resolve break. “My mom.”

“Is something wrong?” Stiles asked, mild panic flowing over him. Melissa McCall was like a second mother to Stiles. “She sick or something?!”

“No. No.” Scott soothed, startled. “No, she’s okay just upset.”

“Upset?”

“Yeah, upset. Thinks that we are hiding something from her.”

“Which we are.”

“Right but, now she thinks your dad is in on it too and that we just don’t trust her.”

“Oh…”

“Yeah, I mean, I don’t want to tell her yet, not with so much in the air but I don’t like it when she’s mad at me.”

“Understandable.”

Scott sighed, “She has to know eventually, I don’t think I can keep it from her for the rest of my life.”

That was true. She was Scott’s mother. Nothing about the situation was going to change and eventually her not knowing would come back to bite them all in ass, Stiles just knew it.

“Let me talk to my Dad, see what he and Ari think.” And Derek, and probably Peter because Lord knew that was going to go well since he tried to A date her and B use her to get to her son. Maybe the fact that he was, in fact, a lot younger than her would lessen the blow.

Doubtful.

“Yeah, that would be good.” Scott offered Stiles a small, hopeful, smile.

“No problem.”

The bell rang informing them that they were late to homeroom. “Shit.” They bolted out of the locker room.

At least it was just homeroom. No big deal.


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so tired. This moving in the middle of a semester thing needs to never happen again, I've barely even started packing because I've had five tests this weekend and several assignments. I'll be so glad when the semester is over, you have no idea then I can get back to regular writing. PS: for anyone that was confused as to why I've posted the blank chapter for Fury I like getting my chapters split and edited ahead of time and this way I can just keep the drafts up for when I have tme to work. We still have seven chapters to go here.

“Ugh, early.” Stiles groaned, slumping in his seat and earning a glare from the teacher in charge of morning detention.

At least they hadn’t had to be late to practice yesterday. Seriously, five minutes. And it was home room.

Assholes.

“Do not get us in more trouble, we have a game tonight.” Scott muttered out of the corner of his mouth.

“You have a game, I have bench warming detail.”

“You are first alternate. You are going to end up playing for at least a little while. It’s not like everyone on the team is…”

“Supernaturally enhanced?”

Scott rolled his eyes, “Yeah, that.”

“Shh.” The teacher said with glare.

“Sorry.” Scott told her and turned back to the paper he was writing on.

“Forget your homework again?” Stiles asked.

“No. Shh.”

“Oh, come on. Mrs. Carol doesn’t care, Do you Mrs. Carol?” The woman in question glared at him but said nothing. “See.”

“Stiles, can we just get through this so we don’t end up late for homeroom again.”

“Now, there’s a Catch-22 if I’ve ever heard one.”

“Shut up. I’m not talking to you.” Scott frowned and turned his back to Stiles as much as he could in the small desk.

“Spoilsport.”

***

“This close, this close, Stiles.” Scott scowled at him across the lunch table.

“Those words typically come with some kind of gesture to indicate the closeness one is referring to.” Stiles said with a laugh.

“Allison.” Scott whined at his girlfriend, “He almost landed us in detention again. During detention.”

“Stiles.” She reprimanded with a laugh. “What did you do?”

“Nothing. And we didn’t get another detention, did we?”

“He tried to drive the supervisor nuts.”

“Huh?” Isaac asked through a mouthful of his sandwich.

“All I did was tap my pen.”

“You know that she turns her hearing aid up in class, Stiles.”

“It wasn’t class.” He said matter-of-factly. “It was detention.”

“Hearing-aid? Oh, Mrs. Carol?” Erica asked as she took a seat across from Isaac. Boyd was probably getting their lunch.

“Yeah. He was tapping his pen under the desk and she kept jumping and staring around the room trying to figure out where the noise was coming from. You nearly made an old woman cry, Stiles.”

“Dude, she never even bothered to ask if it was one of us making the noise.”

“Cry, Stiles.” Scott glared at him.

“Whatever, you big baby.”

“Who’s a big baby?” Danny asked as he came to join them.

“Scott.”

“Ah.” Danny nodded sagely. “Makes sense.”

“Hey!”

Danny laughed at him. “So, game day.”

“Yep.” Stiles agreed. “I’m sure my bench spot has been lonely over the last couple weeks.”

“You know, if you actually showed up and tried to play by the actual rules of the game, Stilinski you would probably be first string, you’re better than a lot of the guys that are.”

“Rules, shmools.” He grinned. “I still say that if you are going to give someone a stick with which to beat their enemies, they should be encouraged to, in fact, beat their enemies.”

“Even so, that time in freshman year was a low blow.”

“Very low.” Scott said, shifting uncomfortably and wincing in memory. “And it was a scrimmage, dude. We are on the same team.”

“Reminiscing about the time that Stilinski tried to do the world a favor and end all chances of McCall procreating?” Jackson said as he sat next to Danny. “I think that might have been the only time I felt genuine non-distain for Stilinski.”

“Oh, Scott.” Allison winced in understanding. “Stiles, that is mean.”

“Hey, I was going for the leg, he is the one that dodged the wrong way.”

Erica snorted into her water bottle. “Nice.” She offered her hand to Stiles across the table and he grinned smacking it with his own.

“I used to think you were a nice person.” Scott mumbled under his breath at her. She grinned at him all teeth and animal intensity.

“You should be ready to play tonight.” Jackson said. “Finstock said he isn’t expecting Matthews to last long.”

“What?”

“He was out with the flu for two weeks, Stilinski. He can’t breathe for shit.”

“Then why is he going in at all?” Allison asked exasperated.

“He’s big and, normally, very fast.” Danny explained. “Other teams know him. He’ll last about fifteen minutes but that should be enough to spook them.”

“Half the team is made of werewolves,” She sighed, “can’t someone not recovering from the flu be big and scary for a week? Stiles is the smallest one on the team and even he isn’t actually small.”

“Fast, not scary.” Scott reminded her.

She glared at him. “I know what I said. You want intimidation, try Isaac or you, or Jackson…Hell, Danny even.”

“Ouch.” Danny said. “Thanks for leaving me for last.”

“Dude, I wasn’t even on the list.” Stiles scowled.

Danny snickered. “Right, sorry.”

Allison smiled at him sheepishly, “Sorry, Stiles. I mean, no one is saying you’re not intimidating, just…”

“No, I am totally saying that Stilinski isn’t intimidating.” Jackson countered.

Allison frowned at him and continued, “Just intimidating in a different way.”

“A way that has nothing to do with Lacrosse.” Scott agreed. “Or physical aggression in general.” He frowned, “Ah, you’re really smart?”

“Thanks, friend.”

Danny slung an arm over his shoulder casually, “He’s not wrong. I mean obviously, Lydia is smarter-“

“And you’re better at computers.” Jackson added, snidely.

“Right. But you’re tricky. Conniving and what not, we sort of wear what we can do on our sleeves, you are harder to figure out.” He grinned, “After everything I’ve heard about the last couple months it seems like you were the go to for creative ways out of bad situations.”

Conniving.

Great.

“So, I’m Peter.” He deadpanned.

Scott, who had, moments before, been agreeing with Danny vigorously, backtracked. It looked like he was going to shake his head right off his shoulders. Stiles would have laughed if it weren’t for the fact that he was already on the knife edge of checking himself into the local looney bin. That last thing he need was people confirming his fears.

“No!” Allison balked. “No, definitely not!”

“Seriously, you’re nothing like Peter.”

Had he mentioned how bad a liar Scott was?

Lydia frowned at him. “You know, apart from the obvious, there are worse things to be than like Peter.”

“Like Derek for instance.” Allison said under her breath.

“Coming from the girl that still looks like she wants to bash his face in every time she sees him.” Stiles said. He’d bring up that little tid bit with her later.

“Personal feelings of being used like a zombie slave aside,” Lydia snapped with a glare, “no one here can say that his resurrection wasn’t both well planned and creative.”

“True.” Allison admitted.

“Guy’s a lunatic but he’s a wiley one.” Erica added with a shrug. “And you can’t beat the shit he knows about taking down an enemy.”

Isaac shrugged, “I don’t like the guy or anything but she’s right, he is a lot better at the training thing than Derek.”

“Since he’s come back he’s done a lot to help our control situation.” Boyd admitted. “I don’t go off as easily now.”

“Which brings us back to you, Scott still has more control in his pinky than these guys do in their whole bodies and you are the one that got him there.” Lydia said. “The similarities are there, Grzegorz, that doesn’t mean that you are the same person though, stop acting like we are expecting you to start slaughtering innocents at any second.”

“Whatever, Can we go back to the game?”

Sometimes avoiding the issue entirely was just the way to go.

“Fine. Are your cousins coming?” Erica asked.

“Apparently.” He glared at Scott. “I nearly had them convinced not to bother but someone had to open his big mouth and mention that I am first alternate.”

“Sorry.” Scott said gleefully.

“Try that again with a little less rainbows and kittens, asshole.”

“I don’t see why you don’t want them to come.” Allison said. “They are your family, why shouldn’t they see you play?”

“Because I suck?”

“You don’t.” Danny countered, “You know you don’t, don’t be stupid. If you sucked you wouldn’t always be on the bench, you would be sitting in the stands with the half of the team that is there because they couldn’t find a club to join instead. There are way more guys on the team that never play, whine all you want but Finstock isn’t stupid, only people he’s actually willing to play are on the bench.”

“Aside from Greenburg.” Jackson added. “No one knows why Greenburg is still on the bench.”

“Dad’s the superintendent.” Stiles muttered.

“Oh, see now that makes sense.” Scott said.

“Yes, it does.” Jackson said, “Good to know.”

“I could have told you that.” Lydia said to her boyfriend with a frown.

“Yeah, well.”

“Just because I’m less than interested in the sport doesn’t mean I know nothing about the team, Jackson. I attend every game and most practices.”

“Sorry.”

“You should be.”

“Okay, steering clear of today’s second minefield, Ari and Iggy are going to be at the game and for some reason that makes Stiles feel inferior.” Danny said rolling his eyes.

“How is that less of a minefield?” Stiles frowned.

“You are less likely to kill me in public. Your Dad is sheriff; that would be frowned upon. Lydia has no such qualms.”

“You’re not wrong.” Stiles admitted then frowned, “Hey, who says that it makes me feel inferior?”

“Your face whenever it get brought up.” Danny said. “You look like someone killed your dog.”

“I have no dog, animals hate my dad.”

“Metaphor, and I know, my dogs tried to take a chunk out him when he swung by to ask my mother something.”

“Your dogs? Those wusses?” Jackson asked. “They are too terrified of Prada to be in same room as her and they tried to attack the guy with the gun?”

“Well, for one thing, I doubt my dogs have any idea what a gun is.”

“Still. The sheriff is a lot bigger than Prada.”

“Agreed.” He laughed. “They were fine until he got within smelling distance then they freaked out.”

“Yeah, animals do that around him.”

“Is it a Fae thing?”

“Probably whatever type my Dad is, animals love Iggy and Val though, so not all types.”

“Weird. What about you?”

“We don’t know if I’ve manifested or not.”

“So? Animals, yay or nay?” Erica asked.

“Animals tend to ignore his existence completely.” Scott answered for him. “He walked right up to a buck in the woods once and nothing. I moved one step toward them and it was off like a shot.”

“Interesting.” Lydia said. “Is that a product of not manifesting or of manifesting?”

“No idea.”

She stared at him before typing something into her phone.

Hey, wait…

“Are you keeping a list of things that might be Fae about me?”

“Yes. And myself. The lists are long because I don’t know what is important and what isn’t. Your ADHD for one, you have it and your cousin but I don’t. Was it always there or did it happen suddenly? Any strange dreams or--”

Right.

No.

Stiles shook his head. “You know what, let’s go back to my inferiority complex toward my cousins. That was fun.”

“Let’s. So were they better at sports?”

“Only Iggy played sports, basketball, and he was crap at it.”

“Really, none of them?”

“We aren’t a real sporty family.”

“You feel strange that you do enjoy sports.” Danny offered.

“No, not really.”

“Okay, I’ve got nothing.”

“Look, my not wanting them there has nothing to do with sports or my aptitude for them.”

“So what?” Danny looked at Scott hoping for a clue.

He shrugged.

Stiles sighed, even he didn’t know why he was so against it.

***

No, wait.

Now he remembered.

“Dude, they’re related to Stilinski?”

“How’d he come out so scrawny?”

“Runt in every litter, huh.”

“A litter would be siblings, not cousins.” He grumbled under his breath, arranging and re-arranging the water bottles sitting on the bench behind him.

“Grzegorz!”

Stiles flinched when Ari’s voice reached him.

“No wonder he goes by that stupid nickname.” One of the other players snickered to the guy next to him.

“Grzeg—“

“What!” He shouted back, annoyed.

Ari frowned at him and crooked a finger at him.

Here. Now.

Yes, sir.

Stiles trotted over dutifully the sounds of his fellow bench warmers trailing behind him.

“Look, could you not call me that right now?” He asked as he reached the stands.

“Not happening.”

“Fine, whatever. What do you want?”

“Uncle is going to be a few minutes late.”

He couldn’t have texted him that?

“Oh, sure.”

“He wanted me to tell you.”

“Consider me told.”

Ari frowned at him again. “Do you want us to leave?”

“What?”

“We’ll leave if you really prefer.”

Stiles sighed. “No, its fine. I’m glad you’re here. Just wound up, I guess.”

“It’s not unusual.”

“Hm?”

“I was…when I was your age…”

“I know, three of you at age 16 could fit in you now. Stilinski’s are late bloomers.”

“Not just Stilinski’s.” He said pointedly.

“Yeah. Thanks.”

Stiles jogged back over to the bench to find that the starting line had returned and were crowding around Matthews so no one could see him cough.

“You let him warm up?!” He barked, pushing past Danny and Isaac. “Are you nuts?”

“He wouldn’t last ten minutes going out cold.” Jackson growled.

“He’ll be lucky to last five now.”

“I’m fine.” The bigger teen spluttered through another wracking cough.

“Yeah,” Stiles snarked, “obviously.” He spun on Jackson, “If the nurse sees him she’ll be on us like white on rice.”

“So we don’t let her see—“

“Is everything alright?” A soft voice asked behind Danny and Isaac.

Shit.

“Fine. Everything is fine.” Jackson mumbled to her, trying to squeeze out of the blockade without letting her see Matthews.

He failed.

“Mr. Matthews. Are you not feeling well?” She frowned at him, pushing through the other players.

“I’m fine, water went down the wrong pipe.” Matthews tried, as if the rough and ragged voice wasn’t a dead giveaway.

Yep.

They were screwed.

 


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I suck, sorry I'm so late! I missed two chapters last week so you are going to get four this week and three next week. I was unprepared and move took more out of me than I had planned and then there was Easter and schoolwork and things just generally got out of hand. Between today and tomorrow I am going to edit and draft the rest of the chapters so that this doesn't happen again. Which, I mean, the last chapter should go up on the seventeenth instead of the fifteenth but it shouldn't be too bad.
> 
> Happy Reading!

‘Don’t screw up, Bilinski.’

Hell of a pep talk.

Thanks, coach.

Stiles scowled as he put his helmet on.

Matthews was on his way back home after a thorough scolding from both the nurse and his mother and Stiles, Stiles was officially changed to first line.

Damn it.

He hustled over to join the pack in their little huddle away from the rest of the line.

“Any hits you can take, take.” Jackson muttered to Scott, Isaac, and Boyd. “We can’t afford injuries without a real alternate.”

He wasn’t wrong. Without Stiles on the bench they had Greenburg and the two freshmen that managed to throw the ball in the right direction during the last practice on the bench. Normally he would stress the importance of not getting all wolfy on the field but, you know what?

Screw it.

“Protect the weak.” He said with a laugh. “Seriously, I hate to say it but if we have any chance of winning we have to keep the entire line going the whole time.”

“Shit.” Danny muttered.

“You know, considering that this is the most popular sport in school we have very limited talent.” Isaac said.

“And most of that is supernatural in nature.” Stiles reminded.

“Yo, Captains! How about a group huddle? Not the time for a tea party among friends.” Finstock called over to them annoyed.

Stiles sort of checked out of the conversation as they joined the other half of the team. He glanced at the stands. Allison grinned and waved at him happily. Iggy offered a thumbs up. Ari was talking on his cellphone but smiled at him when he caught his eye.

Val, Iggy mouthed at him gesturing to the phone.

Stiles nodded.

Which was apparently the right thing to do because he was brought back to the current conversation with a jolt as the coach slapped a hand on his shoulder, “Great!”

Scott was staring at him, concerned.

“What?” He questioned as they got ready to take the field.

“Dude, you hate playing attacker.”

“Huh?”

“You just agreed to play attacker instead of midfielder.”

…

“I DID WHAT?!” Stiles shouted. “Why didn’t you stop me?”

“I didn’t know I was supposed to.”

“Protect the weak, Scott. We just discussed this.”

“Yeah, so?”

“So! I’m the weak, Scott. I’m the weak! What am I supposed to do as an attacker?! These guys are huge.”

They were. That was the whole reason that Matthews was supposed to be in the game to begin with.

“Um…”

“If I die, I’m totally haunting you.”

“I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

“ _I’m sure you’ll be fine._ I hate you.” Stiles growled at him.

Scott shrugged weakly, “Sorry.”

“McCall, Bilinski, move!”

“Yes, coach!” Scott shouted and moved onto the field.

Stiles followed him begrudgingly. One of the attackers on the opposing team grinned at him under his helmet.

In fact, all three attackers were watching him like hawks. Stiles realized that the only opening left on the field was his attack position.

He was the easy target.

Oh, God.

He was going to die.

***

“Nice!” Stiles accepted the high five from one of the midfielders, Holstram, he thinks.

“See, you’re fine.” Scott grinned at him as they reset into their positions.

“I didn’t actually get anything out of that you know.” He reminded him.

“Didn’t get anything? Dude, they had to replace three guys.”

“Two of them are fine, they’ll be back in soon.”

“How do you know?”

Stiles rolled his eyes, “They are already back on the bench. Their coach only called them out to not look like a total asshole with no care for his players well-being.” He glanced over, “I give them one play.”

“Still, shook them up.”

“Sure.”

“Your dad is here.” Scott said as they got ready. “He got here just as you got out of that.”

“Cool.”

He didn’t look at the stands, he didn’t have time before the game restarted and he was charged recklessly by the other teams annoyed attackers.

He dodged and ran for it. It was good in a way, they had fucked up. He didn’t have the ball, Scott had slipped right past them and was headed for the goal.

The attackers collided viciously as he darted past them.

The people in the stands on their side groaned.

Point to Cyclones.

One more attacker down for Dorton High’s Tigers.

Stiles cringed as the coach of the other team called a time out in order to berate them for not paying attention to the actual game.

Stiles couldn’t blame him. That was two players down for the game in less than five minutes, pretty stupid. They wouldn’t go after him again.

“To me.” He whispered, knowing that only the wolves would hear him. “I’ll be open.”

The wolves nodded almost imperceptibly.

This was going to be easier than expected.

***

It was.

Ridiculously, hilariously, so.

The Cyclones crushed the Tigers.

8-0

They didn’t have to substitute a single time.

Even if Stiles did feel like he was going to throw up one of his lungs, because _Jesus fuck_ he needed stamina training, they still won. Stiles had even scored one of those points himself.

He had been right, they did leave him alone that next play allowing him to score. Of course the coach was all over them again and suddenly ‘ignore 24’ turned to ‘take 24 down’ (which was kind of awesome because they felt threatened by him; that never happened).

So he ended up well covered the rest of the game but apparently the tigers were an all-or-nothing kind of team and covering him meant that they left so many holes in their defense that Boyd, massive –obviously should be covered Defense man- Boyd had practically walked to the goal to score.

The goalie had looked like he was going to piss himself. He didn’t even try to save it.

It was great.

Stiles was fairly certain he had seen the coach crying through his rant as the other team packed up and headed to the guest lockers.

“Great game, Stilinski.” One of the midfielders called to him.

“Nice, Bilinski.” Finstock said clapping Stiles on the back.

Scott grinned at him and offered a thumbs-up. Boyd and Isaac both offered him smiles as he chugged water on the locker room bench.

Danny grinned at him, “Nice job.”

“You didn’t suck.” Jackson muttered grabbing his own water bottle, it was the only concession Stiles was likely to get so he’d take it.

“It’s what I strive for.” He told him with a laugh, which was honestly more of a wheeze, he needed to hit the gym more.

He stood and started to tug off his sweat soaked jersey, whining miserably as his arm muscles protested. He should not have stopped moving until he was under hot water. He was not used to the misery of playing starting line and through an entire game. He wasn’t sure he ever wanted to do so again.

“Where’s Bilinski?” The coach called as he walked in. He spotted Stiles despite his attempt to hide behind Boyd’s much larger frame. “My office, as soon as you are done.”

Shit.

Twenty minutes later, showered up and feeling slightly more…well not human but you get the idea, Stiles trudged into the office. “Hey Coach. I’ve got family waiting so if we could make this quick—“

“Sure. You’re first line attacker, I’m moving Matthews to defense when he gets back and Carter is out, He sucked tonight. Bye.”

H-hold on.

“What?!”

“I thought you wanted to make this quick?”

“Not that quick!” Stiles snapped, confused. “I don’t, this was a fluke, coach. I am not even trained as an attacker!”

“You’re not really trained at all, kid, and yet you carried the game tonight so I’m thinking you don’t have much of a choice.”

Oh God. This was not where he thought tonight was going to go.

“Okay, fine, but there are better options—“

“Who? Greenburg? We are a Championship team, bad enough the current crop sucks ass, anyone remotely decent is on tap here.”

At least you know Greenburg’s name, Stiles thought.

“I know your name, Stilinski, you are the Sheriff’s kid. It’s not hard.”

Apparently, he had said that out loud.

“No more skipping practice and I want you running at least five miles a day, your stamina sucks.” The coach returned to reading the paper that he had been when Stiles had walked in.

Stiles stood gawking at him for more than a minute before Finstock sighed and glanced up at him, “Get your ass out of my office before I have your jersey changed, _Bilinski_.”

Stiles stumbled out of the empty locker room less than a minute later still dazed. Danny was leaning against the wall outside, “I was elected to check if coach had killed you or something.”

“Oh. Yeah.” Stiles paused and shook his head, “Wait, no.”

“Yeah, I can see that.” Danny laughed at him.

Right.

Danny stared at him, “Dude, you alright?”

“I…Carter is being dropped.”

“Good, he sucked tonight. My dog could have played better defense.”

“Yeah.”

They made their way out of the school and into the parking lot where the rest of the pack and Stiles’ family was waiting.

“Okay, kid?” Stiles’ dad asked as they approached.

“He’s not dead but I think Finstock may have like cursed him or something.” Danny said, “We should look into that, is that a thing?”

“It is, there is no magic on him though.” Ari remarked.

“Carter is bein—“

“You already said that.” Danny rolled his eyes.

“Yeah.”

“That too.”

Lydia sighed, annoyed, “Coach Finstock made him first line permanently.” She snapped.

How’d she know?

Scott echoed his question out loud.

“Logic, Crater is out and a defense man, Matthews would be a better defense man than he is an attacker so coach will move him back and Stiles takes his place as attacker. Logic.” She reaffirms.

“Congrats, Stiles!” Allison grinned at him.

His family and the pack grinned and gathered around him happily.

Congrats, Stiles.

Finally got what you wanted so badly.

Nothing is that easy, is it?

Not for him.

 


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally,things start to pick up pace as Book 1 draws to a close. Hope you all enjoy.

Saturday morning dawned bright and beautiful and when he is jolted awake once more by a knee to the crotch Stiles is certain that nothing good will come of it.

“Erica!”

“Uh, sorry man, that was my fault.” Scott’s voice came from above him but Stiles refused to open his eyes.

Refused.

No one was going to make him get up and face this day.

Of course, this thought was quickly followed up by a sharp pain in his hip as he was slammed to the floor via gravity and, lo, Erica’s impatience. At least Scott ended up with the same treatment. Of course he had werewolf healing and Stiles did not.

“I hate you all.”

“Sure you do.” Erica grinned at him.

“Dude, what is this? Isaac asked holding up a piece of paper and frowning, “Didn’t know you could draw.”

Stiles jerked up off the floor.

“Also, what natural disaster hit this place?” Erica said picking up a discarded book. “I know you’re a teenage boy but I never took you for a slob. I mean, it wasn’t this messy the other day.”

“Fuck!”

Stiles whirled around staring at his room, the new bed had held up but the sheets looked like hell. His books were all over the floor and his desk was covered in papers.

He went to bed.

He remembered going to bed.

Not again.

Scott frowned and took the papers from Isaac’s hand.

“Are you sleepwalking again, Stiles?” he questioned, “Is something wrong? Why haven’t you said anything?”

“I…”

Stiles wasn’t sure of what to say, all three wolves were staring at him now looking concerned. Damn it, Erica and Isaac didn’t even know what Scott was talking about.

“You sleepwalk?” Erica questioned, “He sleepwalks?”

“He used to. I thought it had stopped.”

So had he.

“Ari.” Stiles muttered.

Scott glanced at him, “What?”

“Get Ari!” He snapped.

He was pissed. Not at them, at the bastard in his head. The one that thought it would be clever to scrawl ‘runs with wolves’ on his desk and draw image after image of dark forests the faintest flicker of eyes hunting in the shadows of the trees.

He had to hand it to the jackass, he was pretty good at drawing with other people’s hands.

There was a creak and then a groan followed shortly by a deafening crack and suddenly Stiles was back on the floor.

He had put his hand right through the desk.

His hand burned and he could feel blood dripping down it sluggishly.

Erica’s eyes widened and she was out of the room before anyone could make a sound.

“Oh my god.” Scott whispered. “Holy Shit, Stiles.”

He was gaping at him. He couldn’t seem to form words but he rushed to Stiles’ side and helped him up scanning over him worriedly.

The ‘are you okay?’ was silent.

So was the ‘what the fuck?’.

“He’s bleeding.” Isaac said nervously.

“Get a washcloth from the bathroom.” Scott muttered. He was carefully manipulating Stiles’ hand, avoiding the cuts. “Nothing’s broken.”

Except the desk.

The desk was broken.

There was a crash behind them where the remains of the desk had been.

It was fully in pieces now.

No coming back from that.

There wasn’t enough superglue in the world.

“Grzegorz.” Ari came in and knelt down on the floor beside his bed checking his hand for himself. “What happened?”

“You tell me.” He snapped.

Ari frowned. “I heard nothing last night. Not a sound. I was awake, making calls for Daniel and Lydia. There was no noise.”

“How?!” Stiles gestured around the room at the wreck. “How could this have made no noise, Ari?”

“I don’t kn—“

“Uh, guys?” Erica said from by the door which she had just started to close. “Has this always been here?”

Stiles and Ari turned to face her.

“What the hell?” Ari muttered crossing the room in a couple of strides and touching the symbols on the door. They wiped away with ease.

“What is that?”

“A sealing spell. Like the chain I showed you.” Ari muttered, examining the remaining symbols closely.

“No sound.”

“No sound.” Ari agreed, “No movement, no nothing. You may as well have been in a different house entirely. A different state.”

“Okay, but in order to do that he needed control, right?” Stiles asked. “And this stuff is him getting control so it should have happened before he could silence the room.”

“But somehow, this came first.” Ari said. “Which means he can take control easily now and this is all for show.”

Great.

“And the desk?”

“Good question. That was all you.”

“I’m manifesting?”

“Maybe. Possibly.” He sighed, “I don’t know, might just be adrenaline.”

Adrenaline.

Sure.

“I put my hand through a desk.” He deadpanned. “Like a hole. My hand just went through a desk. It didn’t break like that until a good minute later.”

Ari nodded. “Okay.”

Not okay.

Not okay at fucking all.

And it was getting less okay by the second because Stiles was panicking. He was headed full tilt toward a full blown attack and he was pretty sure that nothing was going to stop it.

He was suddenly short of breath, his eyes were blurring, and he couldn’t focus. He was going to pass out, or puke, or something.

Heart palpitations, check.

Throat closing up, check.

Stiles squirmed uncomfortably and made to stand, to go to the window and get some air or out of the room completely. He made it about two steps before his legs turned to stone, freezing him in place, and then jelly, sending him down to the floor.

Erica caught him.

He’d be embarrassed about that later.

When the lights behind his eyes stopped flashing. When he could think and breath again. When he stopped shaking.

Why was he shaking?

“No!” A female voice shouted, “Don’t touch him!”

“What the hell?!” A male this time. “Stiles! Stiles?”

“Stop it. He can’t answer you!”

“What’s wrong with—“

“He’s seizing, you idiots!”

Seizing?

Who was seizing?

Erica?

Stiles’ mind reeled as he tried to get a grasp on the situation, his mind went blank.

***

Stiles came back to his senses abruptly.

Or well, he came alert at least.

His eyelids were heavy, he couldn’t open them, couldn’t move at all.

He could feel though, a cool hand against the skin of his forehead, the rug on his back.

He could hear as well, he realized suddenly.

“Are you sure we shouldn’t call an ambulance?”

“Quite. That was not naturally induced.”

“Like a curse or something?”

“No. I need you all to back away from him, If I tell you to go do it.”

“What’s going on?”

“I think we are about to have some unwelcome company.”

“What?”

Stiles was just as confused as his friends. He nervously tried to move again.

Not even a twitch.

Except, he thought as he tried to clench his fist, he was rolling over, kneeling, standing.

Except he didn’t feel like he was moving at all.

That seemed like a less than ideal situation.

“Stiles! What are you doing?”

“Hey, you just seized, take it easy. You shouldn’t…”

“Stiles?”

Suddenly his vision snapped back. Ari was standing in front of him his arm outstretched to block any of the wolves in the room from coming forward.

“Stay back, he won’t answer you.” He told them.

“What is wrong with him?” Scott asked looking terrified which was not helping Stiles mental state.

“He is not aware right now. Don’t touch him.”

“Is this a Fae thing?” Erica asked looking concerned. “Why is he twitching like that? What is wrong with his eyes?”

Twitching?

He was twitching?

He was, he realized. His mouth, hands, the muscles in his legs, they all pulsed erratically and, in all likelihood visibly.

“You should go downstairs.” Ari told them. “Everything is fine. Just give me a few minutes.”

“This doesn’t look fine.” Isaac muttered staring at Stiles. “In fact this sort of feels like I should be expecting to be showered with peasoup any second. Maybe we should call a priest instead of a doctor.”

Normally Stiles would find the joke hilarious. He would also be glaring at the confused look on Scott’s face because how were they even friends? He hadn’t seen the Exorcist either? This time though, Scott got a pass and Isaac was on his shitlist because that was absolutely not funny when he literally was not in control of his own body and his friends were staring at him like he was about to attack.

“I doubt the clergy could help, but you are free to try.”

Okay, who was that?

“What the fuck?!” Scott yelped.

“Stiles?!” Erica looked even more disturbed.

“Time for you three to go.” Ari said.

“But? Sti--”

“Now, Scott. Move.” He snapped. The three wolves jumped and, looking beyond freaked out, headed out the door. Ari snapped it shut behind them and pulled out the chain from the other day, wrapping and setting it.

“You know, the spell was stronger.”

Seriously?

Where was the voice coming from?

“Perhaps but unnecessary.”

“If you say so.”

“Are you trying to kill him?” Ari snapped. “That is three times this week you have done this to him.”

“Gets easier every time.”

Stiles felt himself grin and realized with dread that the voice was coming out of his own mouth.

“And harder on him. Do you really want to break the toy you are apparently so found of?” Ari sneered.

“He is hardier than you think. It will take a lot more than little old me to break him.”

Hell yeah it would! Stiles struggled viciously against his own body trying to move, to speak.

Bastard! He screamed in his mind. Get out!

“I have to say, this is a lot more comfortable when he is unconscious before I take control. He is a loud little thing.”

“He’s aware?”

Yes!

“He is.”

Fucking creepy ass, dirt bag.  Jesus fuck, come on. This was his body, Gepetto. This was so far from okay. Fuck off you asshole!

“Let me speak to him.”

The thing possessing Stiles’ body found the request hilarious. It laughed, brash and loud.

“Now, why would I do that? I’m comfortable right now and we have things to speak about.”

“We have nothing to--Who are you?!” Ari’s own voice changed abruptly, higher pitched and more melodic. Feminine. His eyes looked glazed and milky. Stiles wondered if his eyes looked as terrifying “You are not his Fate!”

“I wondered when you would show up. I am. Have been for a bit.”

“His fate was not released from his duty, who are you?”

“An interested party.”

Stiles watched as every muscle in Ari’s body seemed to contract simultaneously and his eyes cleared. “You were not invited!” He growled in his own voice.

His muscles went lax suddenly and his eyes became milky again, “This is the business of the Fates, you would be wise to stay out of it.” He (well she) glared at Stiles’ form. “I will not ask again, who are you? where is the boy’s Fate?”

“He decided he needed a little break.” Stiles felt his face twist into a mockery of a smile.

“Grzegorz Stilinski has had one Fate his entire life, no changes have been made. We do not take breaks. You will answer me or I shall have to take this up with the council.”

“Feel free.” He snickered. “I would like to see them scramble, they have been suffering in complacency too long now. Please, call them.”

Ari’s face twisted with a frown. “You think so highly of yourself? Unafraid of the consequences  the council will surely lay upon a fool like you?” She mocked him.

“You dare?! You dare treat me as your equal? As your lesser even? I came before you all, your petty government means nothing to me and their consequences do not apply to one such as I.”

“The council rules us all, no one is exempt from their rule.”

“Your council can no more rule themselves than rule the Fates.” He sneered. “You are weak, as they are, even now you struggle to hold back your charge. You will be exhausted soon, to weak to hold on. Weaker still every day.”

“You know nothing!”

“Don’t I? You do not lose control of the willful child more everyday? You are not the first that falls prey to his strength but you will be the last.”

“I will.” She agreed. “I have control. He knows better now than to go against the council as should you.”

“He knows nothing of the sort. You weaken by the day, rail and struggle against your charges.”

“I have control!” She shrieked even as her eyes flickered with Ari’s fight. “I do. I have control.”

“You have nothing.” He said as the film faded from her eyes. “There is nothing left.” Stiles felt his hand raise and a burning sensation ran through it. The thing possessing him slammed his fingers into his cousin’s chest.

They glowed.

Ari gasped.

“Who are you? What have you done?” Ari muttered tired from his struggles. “Why Grzegorz?”

“I am old, child. The world has gotten too boring, it was due for a change, don’t you agree?” He laughed, “The time of the Fates is ending, you know this.  Nothing is left.”

“What does he have to do with that?”

“Everything.” Before Ari could speak again two doors slammed open in Stiles room, only one of which really should have. Through the door to the hallway flew (quite literally) a milky eyed version of Iggy and through the closet, a similarly clouded Val.

“What have you done, pretender?” Iggy’s fate screeched, a male this time, albeit a high pitched one. “Release her!” The gossamer wings that suddenly stretched from Stiles’ cousin’s back flashed with the colors of a violent storm. They seemed to rage dynamically with swirls of dusky purples and dark greys and shot through with bolts of lightning.

“Now, where would be the fun in that?” The unknown fate quipped.

“The council will have your head for this.” Val’s this time, also male with a voice that boomed and echoed.

“Oh? How did they react when you informed them of the situation?”

Oh jeez, even Stiles could tell that they hadn’t  thought about informing anyone about anything before they took over. Stiles already had a bad feeling. One which came to fruition when the burning sensation came back and flowed into his hands.

“You didn’t inform anyone? Well, then that was a bit stupid, wasn’t it?”

He didn’t wait until Val and Iggy fought their Fates off, like he had with Ari,  he just grinned and slammed Stiles’ hands into their chests and suddenly their eyes were cleared and both collapsed on the ground.

“What the fuck was that?!” Iggy gasped weakly staring at Stiles.

“I don’t know.” Ari told him. “I can’t feel her anymore.”

“What the hell am I doing here? I was at work.” Val managed through his own heavy breathing.

“Our Fates took control.” Ari explained. “He used your ability to shadowwalk to get here.”

Val rolled his eyes, “I know that, Rajmund. I was there. Why though?”

Ari shrugged. “Ask him.” He offered glancing at Stiles’ current occupant.

“I certainly didn’t call them here. Your Fate’s panic must have signaled an issue to those of your brothers. Your paths are closely linked to each other, after all.”

“Why can’t I feel him?” Val questioned.

“Sealed up. Nowhere for him to go. Useless now but then, they all will be soon.”

“You can’t just seal away our Fates. They control everything that we say and do.” Iggy snapped.

“They like to pretend to. But then, we haven’t always been around have we? They are running out of time now, borrowed too much power, got in over their heads. Wasn’t going to last forever, was it?” He grinned. “That’s what they get though, thinking that they are better than any other Fae. We aren’t, you know. We are just Fae like you, less even. Not even high class citizens.”

“What are you talking about?” Ari questioned. “And how long do you plan to use his body, he can’t take much more no matter how hardy he is.”

“No, I could stay indefinitely if I cared to. Or...no that isn’t true. I would break long before him. No matter what I’ve done to myself, I’m still just a Fate and where their power fails so does mine.” He laughed. “Fine then, let’s try something a bit different.”

Stiles’ body tensed up suddenly, joints locking and muscles straining, then suddenly he could move. “Fucking Hell!” He grunted. He glanced at his cousins after getting his bearings once more.

They weren’t looking at him.

He turned to look in the same direction.

“Hello, there. Nice of you to join us.”

 


	25. Chapter 25

“Stiles? Are you with us?” The strange man lounging on his bed asked with a chuckle. “Earth to Grzegorz.”

“What the hell?!” Stiles managed. “Where did you come from?”

The man rolled his eyes, “I should think that is fairly obvious, I came from you. Been some time since I’ve taken a form of my own. How do I look?” He hopped off the bed and walked to the closet opening the door and glancing in the mirror. “Not bad, not bad at all. You’re a stubborn bit, though. I look a bit more like you than I should.”

Understatement of the year.

It was like looking in mirror, granted it was a mirror that added about ten pounds of muscle mass, changed the colour of his eyes, and gave hair extensions but the resemblance was beyond disturbing.

“You look like me.” He managed, cringing internally because--wow. That sounded so dumb.

“I do. I shouldn’t though.” The not Stiles laughed. “Should wear off soon enough. See, already starting.”

It was. The man’s form stretched, getting taller and the shape of his jaw began to change. Stiles and his cousin’s stared speechless as the not Stiles gradually became a totally different man.

“Better now?” He asked. “Sorry about that, you’re a fighter. That complicates things your particular shape is sticky, hard to get out of.”

“You are Fate.” Ari finally spoke, “You admit that. But you aren’t his.”

“Well, I’m the only one he’s got right now.”

“Right, the original is?”

“Like I said earlier, he’s on a break. A semi-permanent one. It’s not going to matter much though, he’s losing his job as we speak.”

“What is wrong with the Fates?” Ari questioned.

“I told you. Our time is over, got to make some choices now. Die trying to keep control or just stop trying. I’ll last longer but the rest of them? I give them until the day is out.”

“They are losing control of the Dola?”

“So self-centered. Not just the Dola.” He paused. “You stole that name, you know. Or, rather, we pushed it off to you.”

“Stop changing the subject.”

“Apologies, this one’s brain is a mess inside. Hard to keep track of who has what thought. It’s going to take me a minute to recalibrate to having a normal mind.” He frowned at Stiles. “Don’t know how the other one lasted as long as he did. It’s like trying to harness  smoke, trying to get you to do what I want.”

“Uh, sorry?” Stiles offered confused.

“Don’t be. It’s great. Much more interesting, though way too much work for my tastes. Then, its not every Fae that can run with wolves.”

“Back to the subject at hand.” Ari said. “Please.”

“Oh, right. Not just your kind. All of the Fae are in for a rude awakening.”

“The Fates are going to lose control of the Fae?”

“Oh, they have already started to. Been going on for months. It’s all coming to a head now.”

“Can it be fixed?”

“Fixed? No. It’s all done and over with.”

“What do we do?” Iggy said, looking a little panicky.

“Do?” The Fate grinned. “Well, that’s up to you now, isn’t it?” He glanced at Stiles. “I’ll be in touch, kid, but I’ve got shit to do so I’ll be leaving.” He saluted them with a smirk and disappeared abruptly leaving the cousins staring at each other.

“Shit.” Iggy spat.

Yeah.

***

“Stiles!” Scott shouted bouncing up from the sofa and scrambling up to him as he followed his cousins into the living room. “You’re okay!”

“You’re you.” Erica added from her seat watching him carefully. “You are you, right?”

“Yeah. Possession time over for now.” He turned to Isaac. “Peasoup comment was unappreciated, thank you very much.”

The other boy shrugged, “But appropriate.”

Whatever.

“Coffee?” Iggy asked, “I’m not feeling so hot.”

“On it.” Val muttered shuffling into the kitchen.

“Um, Stiles?” Scott asked.

He grunted.

“When did Val get here? Actually, better question...how did Val get here?”

“Closet.”

“Excuse me?”

“He came out of the closet.”

“Who came out of the closet?” Danny asked walking in from the kitchen, “Your other cousin is as ridiculously attractive as ever, by the way. When did he get here?”

“Val came out of the closet.” Scott explained...badly.

“Oh, and he’s gay.” Danny grinned.

“No. I mean li--well, yes actually,” Stiles offered. “He is gay but Scott was referring to him literally coming out of my closet about ten minutes ago. He came out of the metaphorical closet a long time ago. He’s got a boyfriend though.” Stiles shook his head feeling scattered. “I don’t know, weird shit is happening  today and I am seriously unprepared. Also, when did you get here?”

“Fifteen minutes ago with Lydia and Jackson. We are all here, Derek and Peter are prowling in your backyard and Everyone else is in the kitchen.”

“Right. Right.” Stiles rubbed his temples weakly. Goddamn, he couldn’t string two thoughts together right now.

“Here drink this and take these, Coffee’s on.” Ari’s voice came from above him. Stiles looked at the Monster and adderall he was being offered.

“S’not a great idea to take those together.” He muttered.

“Not human and besides, it will help. Val, Ari, and I are all doing the same thing.”

“And  if everyone jumps off a bridge I am supposed to follow suit?” He sassed even as he washed down the pills with his first mouthful of energy drink.

“In this case? The bridge is about to collapse under you so yes, yes you should.”

“Why do I feel like crap?”

“ADHD is acting up.”

“Huh?”

“Most of our kind have it, its a result of the combination of our power of force of will and the Fates control of us. RIght now we are in control of ourselves completely, our systems don’t know how to cope so--”

“They don’t even bother.” Iggy groused as he sipped his own drink. “Caffeine and pills until we stabilize.”

“What about everyone else?” Stiles asked.

“Huh?” Iggy looked at him.

“If this is going to happen to everyone like us then--”

“Whoa, we have no idea if he was telling the truth, Stiles. He did something to our Fates, they didn’t lose control. We have no idea if anyone has actually had any issue with their Fate.”

“I guess but...he didn’t seem to be joking.”

“He didn’t.” Ari agreed. “And honestly, I’ve heard some rumors that lend credence to the idea.”

“Seriously?” Iggy turned to face his brother, “When?”

“There have been some issues among the Fae in the past year.”

“You are talking about what is happening with the Sanguine?” Val asked as he entered the room carrying a tray of coffee mugs into the room.

Stiles pounced on the one that ended up closest to him. “Wait, those are the Fae version of Vampires, right?”

“Yes.” Ari affirmed. “And yes I am referring to them and to several other species that are having similar problems.”

“By other species do you mean all of the ones that use humans to feed?” Iggy questioned looking concerned. “Why haven’t I heard anything?”

“The Fates have been trying to keep the impact of the issue as small as possible. I heard of the issue through Tamsin Corleone.” Ari explained.

“And I have been assigned several of the cases.” Val admitted.

“What is happening to them?”

“They are losing control. Even I struggle with it sometimes, it helps that I am...attached to my donor.”

“Wait what?” Stiles questioned.

“My species is Sanguine.” Val explained with a small smile. “Ari explained that our kind can be any kind of Fae regardless of genetics, correct?”

“Yeah, I don’t really get it but...”

“No one really does.” Iggy shrugged. “As far as anyone knows, we popped out of nowhere and the laws of nature don’t apply to us for some reason.”

“Wait,” Scott stared at Val, “Dude, your a real life Vampire?”

“Sanguine.” He corrected.

“Semantics.” Iggy laughed, “Everyone knows that the cursed breed closest to the original are the Vamps.”

“Shove it, Fairy.” Val glared at his brother.

“Asshole, there is big fucking difference!” Iggy snarled at him.

Stiles glanced between the bickering pair and their brother, “I think we are missing something.”

“Ignacek is a Faery, a Greywing elemental.” He started to explain.

“We can control storms.” Iggy said, not taking his eyes off Val.

Well,that put the wings in context.

“Is this another name difference?” Lydia asked. She and Jackson had rejoined the group just after Val had come in and she was listening to the conversation with rapt attention.

“Yes and no.” Ari told her. “Faery and Fairies are both Fae species, unlike Sanguine and Nightwalker Vampires. They don’t get along very well.”

She nodded understanding, “What is the difference?”

Iggy squawked indignantly, “Everything!”

“Faery,” Ari explained, silencing his brother with a glare. “F.A.E.R.Y., are elementals and are mostly full humanoids like Ignacek is. Most have some form of distinguishing feature based on the element they work which is easily hidden from others’ perception. Like Ignacek’s wings, for instance. Fairies, F.A.I.R.I.E.S., are an umbrella species that includes things like leprechauns and brownies and their like, they are often much less human in form and generally will not hide their natures from outsiders.”

“Faery think that Fairies are pathetic for refusing to hide so they can interact with humans, while Fairies tend to think that Faery as traitors for bending to cultural norms of the human world in order to fit in.”

“So, they are the hipsters of the Fae set?” Stiles asked with a grin.

Iggy reached for a high five, “Yes! They totally are. But like the kind that will literally not wear anything that they can’t claim is ironic and will burn their vinyls because another person recognized the name of a band they like.”

“And what are the differences between Sanguine and Vampires.”

“Noth--”

Val glared at Iggy, “Admittedly little, Sanguine are not endangered by sunlight like the Nightwalkers and are more adept at using thrall.”

“Nightwalkers are harder to deal with.” Ari told them. “Sanguine tend to adhere to a set standard where their counterparts do not. They also tend to use trickery more than their thrall.”

“Magic tricks that they stole from human magicians.”

“Like bunny out of a hat or…” Danny asked with a laugh.

“Ah, no.” Val smiled. “Magicians is the word for any human magic user: Druids, witches, mages, so on and so forth. Think things like Dracula’s gypsy magic tricks in Buffy. Minor shapeshifting, deception charms, small time jinxes, and basic allures, nothing too bad but it can be a pain in the ass to have to fight them.”

“Really?” Lydia asked, “But Sanguine do not use those things?”

“We couldn’t if we tried.”

“The  vast majority of Fae cannot use Magicks and none are capable of controlling human magic. Even of those that can use Magicks the scope of their powers are very specific.” Ari said. “Sanguine are not capable of manipulating Magicks.”

“But they can thrall?”Danny asked, curious.

“I…well…” Ari glanced at his brother who laughed and set down his mug on the table.

“It’s been awhile but…” He reached out and grabbed Danny forcing him to look in his eyes and spoke, “Hello.”

“Uh, hi.” Danny said.

“You’re a pretty thing.”

“Thanks.”

“My little brother is an ass. Do me a favor and smack Iggy in the face?”

Danny walked over and slapped Iggy hard across the mouth and then stared at his own hand confused, “I have no idea why I just did that. I just got really angry and...” He looked at Iggy who was glaring at his brother who was laughing happily. “I’m so sorry, I--”

“Not your fault.” Iggy said.

“So, thrall can make people do things.”

“Mind control.” Lydia frowned, “But not really, right? I bet it only works on people that are attracted to you.”

Danny blushed.

Val grinned, “Got it in one. Well, sort of, generally speaking we can manipulate the body, hormones and parts of the brain specifically and that requires you to let down your guard which you are more likely to do in front of the person you are attracted to than one who you find strange or unattractive. A sanguine can make you angry or sad or horny and then we just put an idea in your head and see what happens. It doesn’t always work though, anger is tricky to aim. Its easy if the person was calm beforehand but if they were, say mad at their friend and I instigated them to be angry they would be more likely to go after the person they were mad at than the person I told them to target. Typically we use it to make sure our donors don’t suffer unduly when we feed.”

“Donors?”

“Humans that volunteer to be fed from. Sanguine remain connected to the human community more than most Fae so we can have a ready supply of food.”

“His boyfriend is his donor.” Ari told them, “Speaking of, you should give him a call and let him know what happened. Your office as well.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” He started to leave the room only to stop at the door and curse. “Damn it! I have to go back, my phone is sitting on my desk. I’ll have to go back to get it, Ig?”

“Yeah?”

“Call my number in five minutes. I’ll fake a family emergency, I’m supposed to leave early today, anyways.”

“Aye, aye Captain.”

Val nodded at them and walked into the hall closet.

“Uh…” Scott watched him leave.

“That is a closet.” Allison frowned, “Right? I’m not going crazy here am I?”

“Yep.” Stiles told her, “That’s a closet.”

“So…”

“I told you that he came through my closet, why is it so hard to believe that he would leave through one.”

“Because it’s a closet.” Danny said.

“Sanguine have the ability to shadowwalk.” Iggy told them. “Its a lot less creepy for him to come out of a closet than out of thin air so that is what he tends to do.”

“I feel like those are pretty equal in terms of creepy.” Erica said.

“Not for people that don’t know what he is doing. He comes out of a closet he was looking for something, he comes out of a dark corner he’s a demon from hell come to steal their immortal soul. Its a fine line.”

“Yeah, not that fine.” Jackson said dully.

“Whatever.” Iggy rolled his eyes, “What say we grab the senior wolves from outside and grab some food while we wait for our favorite leech to return?”

Agreed. Stiles thought as his stomach growled loudly, definitely agreed.

 

 


	26. Chapter 26

“How do you people deal with this all the time?” Val scowled, his foot beating a rapid tattoo against the floor. “I feel like I’m going to jump out of my skin right now.”

Stiles shrugged, “You get used to it.” It was pretty bad though. Even Ari was having trouble focusing. “That’s right, you never had ADD.” Stiles frowned, “But Ari said that it’s a Dola thing, isn’t it?”

“Yes but it hits different species differently. None of the Sanguine Dola I have met have had it either.” Val shrugged. “It sucks, I am so sorry that this is normal for you.”

“It’s worse than usual.” Stiles told him. “I feel awful.”

“Ignacek can’t even track with his eyes anymore.” Ari told them as he came in from the kitchen, “He’s washing his face, trying to clear his mind. I gave him another pill but I don’t want him to take too much either.”

“He was over it too.” Stiles sighed, feeling bad for his cousin. “He’s been off meds for a couple years now, right?”

“Three.” Iggy mumbled as he shuffled into the room.

“Any better?” Val asked softly.

“No. Fuck this!” He snapped, pacing back and forth. “Sucks so much. Can’t-Don’t know-Christ, what m’I…” He groaned weakly and collapsed on the couch. “Useless.”

Stiles felt bad, he was barely tracking himself but he was obviously faring better than his cousin was. He could feel the worried gazes of the pack burning into him. They didn’t know how to help and even Ari and Val, who were in decidedly better shape than he and Iggy could not keep track of a conversation long enough to explain what was going on.

It had been an hour of dead ends and circular conversations and they were getting nowhere fast. Stiles had already tripled his normal dose of adderall and Iggy was up to five pills.

A water bottle was handed to him. “Okay, there has to be something we can do.” Danny sounded worried. “Scott?”

“Huh?”

“It was bad when Stiles was a kid, right? Did he ever get really bad at your house?”

“A couple of time but mom used to just call his dad, give him an extra pill if it was super bad. She always told me that I was never allowed to do that if she wasn’t around though.”

“They have had twelve pills in the past hour and a half, I don’t think its going to help.” He sighed.

Ari sighed, “No more, its useless. It has done all it can for us now.”

“It’s not working at all?” Lydia questioned.

“Oh, its working.” Stiles said. “Definitely working, well too.”

“I think our definitions of well are different.” She frowned at him.

He chuckled. “Maybe.” She offered him a small smile which he returned. “Believe me, this could be a lot worse than it is.”

“I don’t see how.” Val muttered, checking his phone again.

“You have no idea.” Iggy whimpered.

“This is stupid.” Jackson growled. “What is the use of all of us sitting around here watching them try to pull themselves together?”

“Jax, shut up.” Danny snapped at the other teen.

Peter sighed heavily from his seat. “Let’s try walking through this again. The Fate that used Mr. Stilinski as his personal segway, do you know him?”

Ari stared at him a moment, annoyed. “No.”

“At all?”

“We don’t talk to other Fates, just ours.”

“Fine. But he acted like he was better than the other fates, yes?”

“Yes.”

“Could that mean something?”

“Don’t know.”

“Could he be?”

“Be?”

“Better than them?”

“I don’t…” Ari jerked up from his position, wide-eyed, and pointed at Peter. “You! Yes. I’m still not a fan but yes.” He took off like a shot up the stairs. They heard him slip twice and slam into the closed guestroom door with a shout. “Fuck! Ouch.”

Stiles looked at his cousins who looked just as lost as him.

“What the hell was--”

“Got it! I--fuck!” The crash that followed the comment from upstairs was deafening.

“Holy shit!” Jackson shouted jerking toward the stairs but not quite making it in time.

They all stood there staring in shocked dismay at Ari’s crumpled form at the foot of the stairs. Stiles ran forward as Ari tried to straighten on his own. “Ari!”

“Ow. Fucking...Help.” Val pushed through the confused wolves to get to his brother.

“Gross. That is disgusting.” He muttered as he grabbed the elder’s arm, which was twisted so thoroughly it appeared to be backwards. HE jerked it forward with a snap, straightening it out.

Stiles watched, fascinated, as they repeated the process on his leg. He vaguely heard gagging behind him, Scott probably.

“Interesting.” Stiles glanced to the side realizing that Peter was standing next to him. “Is that normal, then?”

“I don’t often fall down the stairs because I can’t concentrate long enough to use my depth perception. But yes, I suppose.” Ari said as Val helped him to stand. “My bones don’t break that easily so the pressure of falling can twist them in their sockets.” He stretched,rolling his shoulders and gently bending his knees. “Not the most comfortable feeling in the world, I’ll admit.”

“And was your fall worth the trip?”

“Yes, well, possibly.” He said, “I remembered a story that my previous Fate told me, I wrote it down in here.” He held out the leather bound journal that had joined him in the fall. “If I am right he might be Gemoran.”

“Gemoran?”

“From what I understand, he’s like the Fate’s equivalent of the boogeyman.” He rolled his shoulder again stiffly and Val took the book from him paging through to find what his older brother was referring to.

“Gemoran...lets see here… He was a Fate, a powerful one, and a member of the first council but he wanted more power so he consumed the power of the other members of the council and then disappeared. The power he consumed made him invincible but unstable and he comes back evey once in a while to wreak havoc on the Fates and the Council at the time.” He looked at Ari, “That’s it? Not very helpful even if it is him.”

“The thing is, if he is real he hasn’t been around in a long time so most of the Fates that exist now don’t remember him.”

“Wait, wait. Hold up.” Erica said. “I thought they were immortal. Like all Fae are immortal, right?”

“Yes and no. In the case of the Fates they are like a pool of power that spawns individuals and eventually they all sort of disappear back into the pool and come out someone new.”

“Gepetto said that they had overtaxed themselves, right? That they took too much power and now they are losing control.” Stiles said. “Is that what he was trying to say? That they are going to disappear and respawn?”

That sounded simultaneously super gross and like a videogame.

He frowned, “That doesn’t sound so bad. i mean they’ll come back.”

“In theory, sure. The thing is that that kind of mass repeal of power has never happened so we don’t know how long the process would even take if it could be done at all. As far as I know only one Fate gets spawned at a time so it could take years, decades even, to get them all back.” Ari said.

“Doesn’t sound right.” Iggy mumbled. “Sounded smug but nervous, yeah?”

“True.” Stiles said. “He sounded like that guy that is always preaching about the end days and when they start he’s like well fuck, now even I wish I was crazy.”

Iggy chuckled. “Yeah.”

“But what does that mean exactly?” Lydia asked. “What constitutes the Fates powers? In what way can they overextend them?”

“That is something I have no answer for.” Ari sighed. “They aren’t exactly forthcoming with information about them.”

“We know that they are a type of Fae though.” Stiles said. “At least they were in the past.”

“We don’t know if that is actually true though.” Val said.

“I think we can assume it is.” Lydia said. “Fae existed before the Fates started to control them, right? So it stands to reason that a group of Fae decided to exhibit control over the remaining population. Likely a specific species.”

“He said we stole our name, right?” Stiles said. “They were Dola first.”

Lydia whipped out her phone. “Given that none of you appear to be small household spirits that help keep people on the right path, either this definition is very wrong or this is what the original Fates were.” She handed Ari the phone but he shook it away, “I couldn’t read something that small if I tried right now. I’ll trust you on it. Yes, that is what Scandinavian folklore generally says, whether that is correct or not is subject for debate, it does make more sense than everyone having such poor definitions of what we are.”

“That would make them a type of Fairy.” Iggy said. “‘splains why they’re so annoying.” He massaged his forehead weakly.

“How did they go from that,” Stiles indicated the phone, “to what essentially amounts to the rulers of all Fae kind? Seems like a bit of a stretch.”

“They don’t rule anything.” Val countered.

“Sure seems like it.” Scott muttered. “I mean you are saying that they control everything that all Fae do all the time, sounds like a ruler to me.”

Allison nodded her agreement. “It does. But it hasn’t always been this way, right?”

Ari shook his head. “No, each race had its own ruler before the Fates took control. They still do but…”

“They are just figure heads.” Peter said. “They don’t have any power apart from what the Fates allow them.

“Right.” Ari sighed. “None of the old rulers are still in power, they have either been relieved of their duty or…”

“Relieved entirely.” Peter finished. “By your kind under the rule of the Fates, yes?”

Ari nodded. “Very few are still around that remember the time before, what it was like to have full free-will. Those that do have long disappeared from regular contact with the world.  Our kind didn’t even exist yet.”

Peter frowned. “You have explained that it is only the Dola, your kind that can kill a Fae.”

“We need the instruction of the Fates to do so.”

“If they really are simply a species of Fae then how can they have such control.”

“Better question,” Erica added, “How were the human’s not overrun? I mean Fae breed, right? So their population increases without culling.”

Peter glanced at her startled, “That is a significant point, Miss. Reyes, one that I had not even thought of.”

“No Fae is allowed to live forever, at a certain point the Dola are dispatched to release them.” Val told them.

Stiles frowned, something was wrong with that. “But what happened before?”

“Huh?” Iggy asked, confused.

“We came later, right? I mean our kind didn’t always exist to do the killing and if no one could kill a Fae then their population should have swelled out of control.”

“There are some illnesses that can kill a Fae. Specific to the species.” Ari said.

“How often does one die of these diseases?” Stiles questioned. “I’m guessing not that often or the idea that only our kind can kill a Fae would be completely debunked.”

“No, not often.” Ari agreed. “We have found solutions to most of them.”

“The only one that is thus far incurable is the Savaging that affects Lycans and some other predatory shifter breeds.” Val told them.

“Okay, so...what stopped the Fae from massive overpopulation?”

“I...don’t know.” Ari admitted. “It is not something I have ever thought about.”  

“Me either.” Iggy said. “It never really registered as strange before.”

“Shouldn’t it have?” Danny questioned, “It seems to be a clear consistency issue.”

Stiles frowned. They were right. It was obvious. It was something that Stiles would normally spot in a second, especially given how hard he had been be searching for flaws in the information he was getting from his cousins. How could he have missed it?

How?

“Ari, can they alter our perception?”

“What?”

“The Fates, or whatever they are, can they alter what we see, hear, et cetera…”

“Yes, they can. or well they can alter how the informa...oh. I see where you are going with this.”

“You do? I don’t.” Iggy mumbled, annoyed, “I am totally lost right now.”

“Stiles thinks that the Fates may be altering our perception of information regarding the time before.” Ari explained. “I have thought about and studied it for years and this is the first time I have ever  noticed the inconsistency. The Fates may have been alter our perception, forcing us to look past the issue.”

“So we don’t question our roles. The Dola, as we are now, only make sense if we are needed in the capacity in which we have been used.” Stiles muttered. “So what does that mean?”

“It means that there is more to your existence than the Fates guard dogs and they don’t want you to realize it.” Peter said rolling his eyes, “That much should be obvious. Why your kind? Why are you different and where did you come from in the first place? None of what you have been told makes any real sense.” He said. “I have been suspicious since you began the stories.”

“I don’t understand.” Lydia said, “What doesn’t make sense?” She stole one of the energy drinks from the table and popped it open, taking a sip. “I am not a fan of being out of the loop.”

“It doesn’t make any sense that Fae can’t be killed by...Lydia?”

“Huh?” Her eyes which had just a moment before been glazed over snapped back into focus, “What?”

Stiles felt his heart pound in his chest, “Fae have to be able to--Ari are you seeing this?”

“I am.” His cousin agreed. “Ms. Martin, repeat what I say please.”

“Why?”

“Just do it, Lydia.” Jackson said running his hand through her hair.

She nodded and looked at Ari.

“Yesterday I was walking out behind the road heading down to the stream to take a swim. The Fae can be killed by something other than the Dola. There was a family of frogs sitting on a log there catching flies for supper.”

She frowned at him, “Seriously?”

“Lydia, do it.” Allison said sternly, she had noticed Lydia flickering out of focus as well.

“Fine. Yesterday I was walking out behind the road heading down to the stream to take a swim. There was a family of frogs sitting on a log there, catching flies for supper. Happy?”

“That is all you heard?” Iggy asked quietly. “You didn’t leave anything out?”

“That’s all he said.” SHe looked around at their worried faces, “Wasn’t it?”

Ari looked at Stiles, “You were right. They are altering her perception.”

“Could someone get me another drink.” Lydia asked, “If I missed something, I apologise, I am feeling a little scattered this morning, I didn’t sleep well.”

“Lyds, you hate energy drinks, this is your third.” Jackson frowned at his girlfriend even as he accepted the new drink from Isaac who had grabbed one out of the kitchen. “Thanks.”

“I know, I just need the caff--” She cut herself off screeching and grabbing her head.

Holy Shit. Stiles thought blankly, that didn’t sound good.

 


	27. Chapter 27

The sound she made was horrifying.

Stiles and the rest grabbed their ears, desperate to block out the noise. Jackson wasn’t as lucky as them, they were far enough away to block the sound, he was not. He screamed, reaching for his ears only to find blood dripping down from them.

Despite being next to her, Danny seemed to be having the easiest time of dealing with the noise. He stared at his best friend, eyes wide.

“Get him out of here!” Ari screamed at Danny who looked confused for a second before yanking Lydia off Jackson’s lap and dragging the Kanima out of the room. Ari turned to the rest of them, “Get away from her!” Stiles could barely hear him from his position next to him but his wild gesticulations told the group everything they needed to know.

Stile hated the idea of leaving the Strawberry blonde alone and in such obvious pain but he followed the others outside. They could hear nothing but a muffled cry as the back door closed behind them. Danny was kneeling by the partially transformed Jackson trying to look at his ears. He looked at Ari, “I think he needs a hospital, I think his ear drums may have ruptured.”

“No.” Ari said, sharply. “See if you can get him to transform completely, he’ll heal faster.”

Stiles rubbed his ears frantically trying to get rid of the ringing. “What the hell just happened?!” He shouted.

“Keep your voice down, the house is warded, not the yard.” Ari snapped.

“Well, we know what she is now.” Iggy said looking ill as he rubbed his own ears.

“Poor thing.” Val murmured. He frowned at the door. “How long do you think she will be doing that?”

“A few minutes, at least. For all that the Fates tend to stay out of their business, their connection to them is stronger than any.” Ari said.

“I was finally starting to feel better, too.” Iggy said. “Talk about a migraine.”

Allison glared at him, “What was that? What happened to her?”

“The Fates are definitely losing control.” Val said with a sigh, “That was the sound of a Banshee in traumatic shock from losing her connection to the Fates.”

“Banshee?” Stiles muttered. “So, that’s what she is?”

“Yes, apparently. It is strange that she should have already begun coming into her powers though. She is still very young. A trauma must have triggered it. Has she had any near death experiences?” Ari asked.

Stiles admitted that he felt a little smug when he was most decidedly not the only person in the yard to turn and glare viciously at Peter Hale. The frown the older man wore took some of the wind out of his sails though. “I suppose that is was my doing.” Peter said. “I had bit her before my death.”

“Don’t forget the part where you forced her to participate in a resurrection ritual.” Stiles muttered.

“Yes.” The wolf agreed.

“The bite might have triggered an early rising in a banshee but I would think that it was the second that really did it.” Ari said. It couldn’t have been very long ago so she shouldn’t have completed her rising so quickly without a secondary trigger.”

“What kind of ritual was it?” Iggy asked Peter.

“I hate to be the one to say this, particularly about Evil Undead over here, but I think this is a case of  what’s done is done and we have bigger things to worry about.” Stiles said. “Only, you guys were sort of worried about the idea of the Fates going AWOL and well, this is sort of, proof that they are. So, what do we do?”

Ari frowned, “There is little we can do. We don’t know how widespread or isolated the issue is and as such have no idea what can be done about the problem.”

Val straightened, “She stopped.” He headed toward the door and moved to go inside, Allison and most of the pack following after him.

Stiles hesitated glancing between the door and Ari. His elder cousin smiled at him, “Go inside. We will be in a few moments. Jackson should be alright soon.”

Danny looked up at that, “He’s stopped bleeding.”

Ari nodded. “Good. Can you get him to shift back?”

Danny turned back to Jackson but after a few moments he turned back t Ari, “No. He won’t shift.”

“That’s fine. You have control otherwise.”

“I think so, he just won’t shift.”

“He’s still healing. He won’t be receptive to your demand until he is healed completely. He’ll shift back once he’s ready. I would try to get him to go inside though, this is a little exposed for him right now.”

“Sure thing.” He nodded and led Jackson to the back door, opening it for him and watching him carefully as he crept inside. Iggy followed them.

“Ari?” Stiles found himself asking.

“Hm?”

“What are we dealing with here?”

“What happens if the Fates do lose control over all of the Fae? Is free will really so bad?”

Ari stopped in his tracks, looking back at Stiles with a sad expression. “What happens?” He sighed and looked away continuing toward the door with Stiles jogging to catch up, “What happens? War, Grzegorz, War happens.”


	28. Chapter 28

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dum-da-dum-dum... Only one more chapter left on this particular crazy whirligig of fun. I debated extending it by doing the normal Monday Wednesday Friday schedule but decided I still wanted to to get the last chapter posted tomorrow so I can plan on Fury going up next week--be excited! Or don't, your prerogative.  
> Since I've had several questions about the state of Stiles (currently non existent) romantic endeavors I thought I would let you all know up here that it's gonna be awhile. Quite a while. Sorry, I know people hate slow burn stories sometimes but think about it this way, 70000 plus words or not its only been like three weeks in story so it'd be sort of weird if there was a relationship already. Note that the only relationships currently going are previously established ones. I had some one comment that it seems like this is potentially Steter sounding but, it won't happen, Peter is aromantic in this series and Stiles is very much romantic. It will be either Sterek or Stalia in the end, I'm coming up on the writing crossroads for the Sterek pairing so I'll know for sure soon. Feel free to tell me your opinion on the matter in the comments I will take it under consideration. I won't guarantee anything because it is still my story and if I can't write it I can't write it but I am always willing to hear people's ideas so lay them on me. Word to the wise, in terms of pairing, if it is going to be Sterek it is going to be slow and painful and bad things are going to go down and if it's Malia it won't happen till the last couple books in the series.
> 
> EDIT: MAJOR FIX SEE END NOTE

It took Stiles a few minutes to work up the nerve to follow Ari inside and when he did he was greeted by the sight of Allison making tea. She smiled at him, faintly, “Lydia isn’t feeling too well after that. I thought this  might help, want any?”

“No, thanks though.” He returned the smile. “Is she doing okay?”

“I guess, I mean, how is she supposed to feel right now? Someone that she has unknowingly depended on her entire life just disappeared.”

Wasn’t that the truth.

“She feels scattered and confused and can’t seem to focus on any thing so about the same as you all have been for the past couple of hours.” She frowned as she stirred honey into one of the mugs, “Should we give her some of your pills too?”

Good question, Stiles thought. Both Ari and Iggy had been on them before so they knew that it was okay but Val had never had to and he seemed fine. “What did Ari say?”

“I haven’t asked yet.” She placed the last mug on the tray, “Help?”

Stiles nodded and picked up the tray following her into the living room as she carried a plate with some fruit and saltines on it. He placed the tray on the coffee table and glanced around. Allison had immediately squeezed her way between Isaac and Scott on the couch, she curled into Scott’s arm slightly and nervously petted Isaac’s hair (A habit that Stiles had noticed we becoming increasingly frequent for both the Huntress and her boyfriend).

Jackson, still in his scales, was wrapped tightly around Lydia who was weakly stroking the scales the exposed part of his back. He had gotten the remnants of his shirt off at some point. Danny sat right next to them, obviously positioned so that the Kanima could keep an eye on his master and his mate at the same time.

Ari, Iggy, Peter, and Derek were, surprisingly, sitting grouped together on one side of the room looking at what appeared to be…”Hey! What are you doing with my laptop?” He stomped over, glaring at Peter knowing that he had to have been the one to have broken the password. “Seriously, I just changed the password, too.”

“Admittedly, you are not nearly as unoriginal as your friend over there,” He tipped his head to indicate Scott who looked a little offended, “But you still have a ways to go before you can keep me out.”

“He can smell where your fingers have touched most recently, after that it is pretty easy to tell what is a password and what is a Lit essay.” Derek told him. if the look on his face was anything to go by the lit essay thing was a joke at his uncle’s expense.

“History, actually.” Stiles responded, “But close enough. I know your tricks now, I will defeat you.” He glared at Peter. “On to more important matters, why are you on my computer?”

“I don’t have mine with me and I needed to show my nephew and your cousins something.”

“You couldn’t wait and ask?”

Stupid question, patience was not a word in the Hale vocabulary.

Peter shook his head and turned back to the computer. “We had talked about this previously but it just showed up last night.” He indicated the screen where Stiles was fairly certain there had been a fairly sizable chunk of claimed land.

“Why has it not been claimed by the defeating pack then?” Derek questioned. “What is the point of destroying a pack but not taking the land they were on?”

“Because they were after something else.” Peter said, rolling his eyes. “It wasn’t one of the largest packs but they were known to be quite vicious so the fact that they were defeated so easily is worrying.”

“Who?”

“Calagarian.” Ari said, “It’s only now showing up on the program.”

Derek frowned, “Right, the twins. But that happened a while back, right?”

“Not according to this thing.” Peter said, “Which means that someone is messing with the system to keep the Alpha pack out of it.”

“Whoa there.” Stiles snapped. “Back it up and reel it in my wolfy friends. Who is Calagarian again?”

Peter sighed, annoyed, “The Alpha--former alpha--of the Pale Light conglomerate Pack.”

Now that was a name. A familiar one.

As if reading his mind Derek frowned at Stiles, “Pale Light is the name of the pack the Twins came from.”

Scott spoke up, “Wait there are types of packs?”

“Yes.” Peter told him, “Quite a few, actually. Familial, Recruited, Conglomerate, Cooperative, so on and so forth. Conglomerate packs are made through war, the Pale Light Pack would absorb smaller packs via hostile takeover.”

“So they were strong.” Erica said from her position on Boyd’s lap. “It would have been hard for another pack to defeat them.”

“Near impossible.” Peter agreed. “Normally I would say that the only ones that would stand a chance were one of the Cooperative packs like Mason-Nalico but they haven’t moved at all and whoever updated the maps didn’t mark the defeating pack. Which, doesn’t really matter since we already know the answer.”   

“You said they didn’t take the land.” Allison reminded him, “Why would the territory be remarked?”

He scowled, “Not remarked, but there should be information for outsiders regarding what happened to the pack.”

 “There were other cases of the same thing happening when I was last…”

“Alive?” Isaac quipped.

“Yes. Packs that just disappeared. No trace of who was responsible. I have since realized that it was the Alpha pack but this makes me worry.”

“Are you even sure?” Scott asked, throwing an apologetic look at Allison. “Could it be hunters?”

“No. If it was then one of the neighboring groups would have taken the land to add to their own pack. Large open expanses of territory don’t stay open long under normal circumstances.”

“No one tried to take this territory,” Lydia countered.

“That’s because the Hales weren’t dead, and Peter was still, technically in territory.” Stiles explained. “It would have been seen as disrespectful to…” he trailed off not wanting to bring her up.

He didn’t have to.

“My sister was well liked among the packs, she was very close to some of the other alphas. Foolishly even.”

Derek flinched.

There was something that they were not saying.

“No, this wasn’t hunters. It was internal.”

“What?” Danny asked, startled. “Internal, you mean...?”

“The pack was destroyed from within. Either by Calagarian himself or by a member of the pack who had defeated him. Judging by the fact thtat twins ended up with the Alpha pack I let you draw your own conclusions.”

“Calagarian would have been less than useless without his pack.” Derek said. “Laura and I met with him after we left for New York, he wanted us to join him so he could have our territory, Laura was barely an Alpha and she could overpower him with her eyes closed. His enforcers were what made him strong and they were fiercely loyal to him.”

 “Okay, but what about the rest of the pack?” Erica asked.

“Dead. Alphas can take the power of their packs to add to their own by killing the members. The twins wanted the power, not the pack. They had something better waiting.”

“What are you tal--”

“A recruiting Alpha Pack.” Stiles deadpanned.

“The recruiting Alpha Pack. Duke’s. My nephew is correct though, Deucalion would have wanted nothing to do with Byron Calagarian. Normally I would say that nothing about Pale Light would appeal to his aspirations but I would be wrong.”

“Because of the twins.”

“Exactly.” Peter agreed.

 “When was the last time that ever happened? Twins becoming Alpha?” Derek asked.

“It hasn’t, not in hundreds of years.” Ari answered. “Twin Alphas are totally unstable they can’t connect to a pack the way they should, can’t ground themselves. Most twinned wolves don’t even make it to puberty never mind alpha status. The last time it happened was--”

“500 years ago. They ended up ripping each other apart and taking several surrounding packs down with them.” Iggy finished.

“Duke wouldn’t be that foolish.” Peter muttered. “The appeal is there but he’s not stupid he wouldn’t risk everything for an unknown power. No one knows how powerful Twinned Alphas would be. Their power could well be halved with their nature, its a huge risk.”

“Unless he had a way to stabilize them.” Stiles mused. “I mean if he figured out how to fix the issue or if their was something different about these particular twins…”

“They were close.” Iggy said. “At least that is what I was told. Never left each other’s side. I thought it was strange.”

“Twins are normally close.” Lydia said.

“Not twinned wolves.” Derek shook his head, “It goes against nature. They feel like they are being torn apart, like someone is trying to steal their souls.”

“When twinned wolves are born most of the time the parents, if they keep them at all, will move away from each other until the twins have passed. They start to turn younger because of the turmoil and there have been several cases of babies only a few days old turning on each other and ripping each other apart while shifted.” Peter added. “For twinned wolves to not only get along but also attach to each other is unheard of.”

“So the twins themselves are different.” Stiles concluded. “More stable.”

“It’s possible.”

“So we don’t have to worry about twin Alpha’s trying to destroy the world and each other, well then today is a good day after all.” Iggy joked.

 

“No, we have to worry about an unknown entity headed right for us with little to no warning.” Peter said. “The fact is while we knew that they were coming this way we were under some rater erroneous assumptions, namely that we had more time then we actually do. If someone has been delaying the time it takes to update the maps on Whitetracker the timeline  is useless.” 

“What?” Ari looked concerned.

Derek frowned and pulled out his phone. “I found this at the house this morning.” Stiles peered down at the small picture of a pattern of spirals carved on the burnt out door.

“What is that?” Stiles asked.

“The symbol for an Alpha Pack.” Peter said. “A warning from Deucalion’s advance guard. They are coming.”

“They are here.” Allison said quietly, “They left the mark, they are already in Beacon Hills.”

“Someone is. Not Deucalion, though. They will do nothing until he arrives.”

“How do you know he isn’t here?” Scott asked.

“The demon wolf?” Peter scoffed. “We would know.”

“Demon wolf?” Erica questioned looking nervous.

Ari stopped Peter before he could go on. “You are sure that they are not yet a threat?”

Peter nodded. “Duke is not the careless type but he is not the quiet type either. We will know when they are here.”

“Good. Then we need to focus, on their training and on the situation with the Fates.” Ari said. “I think our only choice is research. We need to know how far this has spread and how long it has been going on.”

Val nodded. “I am going to see Tomaii, see if the Kiss knows anything more than I have been told. I told Mattie to try and get a hold of Valeria or Mercedes and see if they know anything. The donors hear more than the members of the Kiss sometimes. He will be here by morning.”

“Try not to let anything on if they don’t know. The last thing we need is panic.” Ari said and Val nodded before heading back to the closet.

“That does not get any less odd.” Danny noted.

“No. It doesn’t.” Ari agreed. “Ignacek?”

“I don’t know if I can get him to talk to me but I can try Alurien. Maybe his brother will take pity on me.” He muttered as he pulled out his cell phone. “We haven’t heard anything about the Faery having issues though.”

“Try anyways. Same goes for you let nothing on if they don’t know.”

“Aye, aye, captain.” He saluted and headed off upstairs for privacy.

“Alurien?” Stiles asked.

“One of the exes he mentioned, the messy one. He and his brother are Blacktouch Faery and they still live in the enclave.” Ari explained. He turned to Peter and Derek. “As for the Alpha Pack, do either of you still have contacts within the Packs?”

“No, I don’t.” Derek admitted.

“If they have not changed their numbers I have a few.” Peter said. “Though how amenable they will be toward my call is up for debate.”

“Try anyways. See if anyone knows where Deucalion is.”

“Well, I still have his number.”

“I think calling him up to ask when he is going to get here might be stretching it a bit thin.” Stiles said, rolling his eyes.

“Point. Mariska may know if I can get her to answer the phone.”

“Mariska Dubois?” Derek asked.

“Dubois? She married that idiot then?”

“If by idiot you mean the Alpha of the Dubois pack, sure.”

“Yes, I mean him. The man could hardly distinguish between his tail and a hole in the ground. Pathetic.” Peter frowned. “Don’t know how he managed to become Alpha.”

“Naturally.” Derek sneered.

“Okay boys, that’s enough now. Go see what you can find out. I’m taking the rest of your pack and putting them on sifting duty.”

“Sifting duty?” Scott asked, warily.

“Grab a computer, pick a country, and start searching for odd news.”

Scott groaned. Erica jumped up and grabbed her bag, “I call the US.”

“U.K.” Her boyfriend said immediately after, catching on.

“What?” Scott said.

“They are picking countries that primarily speak English, Scottie.” Stiles told him. Followed immediately by, “Canada!”

“Crap.” Scott said. “Um, uh…”

“Australia.” Allison muttered to him quietly.

“Huh?”

“Australia.” She repeated.

“Oh! Australia then I call Australia.” He grinned at her thankfully. Stiles laughed.

The other members rolled their eyes at them. “Sure, take the easy way out.” Danny muttered.

Ari chuckled at them. “One of you may take Canada from my cousin I need him elsewhere.”

Danny’s hand shot up.That asshole trashed the “Mine! I call it.”

“I suppose I’ll start with France and Germany?” Lydia said rolling her eyes.

“I can take France.” Isaac offered, “I’m not entirely fluent but…”

“Thank you, Isaac.” She smiled at him.

“We’ll leave you all to figure it out for yourselves. Lydia, if you could come with us for a moment I will have you back in here in a few minutes.” The second part was mostly said for the benefit of the hissing Kanima who looked less than pleased with the idea of his mate being taken from him.

Lydia nodded and disentangled herself from Jackson so she could follow them out of the room.

“We can go in my room…no, I forgot.” Stiles muttered. “That asshole trashed it.”

“That’s fine.” Ari said. “I just wanted to ask Lydia a few questions. I was not sure if she would want to speak about it in front of the others.”

“This is fine.” Lydia said, “Ask away.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry People!! Thanks to the person who let me know of the issue with the twins backstory. I had two copies of the document and the one that I copied to the googledoc that I do the majority of my editing on was the wrong one. If I confused any one my apologies, I have fixed it now, I think, with the minor edit to Chapter 14 and this big one. It has no effect on the plot but is still important so here you go. I'll summarize the mistake in my beginning author's note on the last chapter tomorrow for anyone who read the chapter before I was informed of the mistake. At some point this summer I will go back over this with a fine tooth comb for any mistakes but I've read and reread and nothing looks off plot wise so as long as you understand the gist you are good to go on to Fury when it goes up.
> 
> Dire


	29. Chapter 29

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys. Here it is, the last chapter of Embers! Don't hate me, Fury will be up soon.
> 
> Now, for those that maybe didn't see the Edit I had to make to the post yesterday here is the gist, though it is probably just easier to go re-read the chapter. I goofed up when I transferred my word doc to the googledoc that I edit and copy from and used the unfixed version of the two Twins conversations, I didn't notice the first time because the edit to Chapter 14 is really tiny but the one in Chapter 28 was kind of a huge chunk of conversation that is pretty different. Now, nothing has changed in terms of the plot, it is only an adjustment to what the pack already knew from a previous conversation in Chapter 14 and a slight name change to a deceased character and Pack. If you don't want to re-read, don't bother. The backstory was the same one described two ways with the minor exception of Derek directly meeting the twins previously (He didn't) because it ended up not working with the plot in the future.
> 
> Any questions? Ask in the comments, and if anyone ever sees something like that again, let me know. It was probably the same issue. I'm a disorganized person with my documents so I have been known to lose things, double things, and repeat plot points by accident because I blanked on what I have and have not said. That being said, if anyone is interested in helping me edit up Embers, Fury, and the other books in the future, let me know, I could use a beta...or a keeper...maybe both?

“First question, would you like to see if one of Stiles’ pills would help?”

She hesitated. “I don’t know. I feel okay, better now than earlier.”

“How about this,” Stiles offered pulling out the bottle from his pocket. He had taken it from the kitchen when he came in. “I give you a pill and you keep it with you in case you decide you need it.”

Ari nodded his approval. “That sounds like a good plan. Just make sure to let someone know if you do take it.”

She nodded accepting the pill, wrapping it in a tissue, and tucking it in the pocket of her jeans. “Thank you.”

Stiles smiled at her, “Not a problem.”

“Okay, on to greater matters.” Ari said. “We need to figure out if you were triggered by the ritual or the bite.”

“You said that the ritual was more likely when we were outside.” Stiles said.

“Yes, but both options remain on the table. I still don’t know what the ritual was and Mr. Hale tells me that he destroyed the book it came from before he even died. He gave you instructions directly, yes?”

“If by directly you mean through dreams, and by being the creepy disembodied voice in my head.” She said. “But yes, I didn’t have it written or anything. I remember the last bits though.”

“Could you write them for me?”

She nodded.

“That will help, though it still leaves us sans Peter’s half of the ritual, which makes things difficult. After the bite did you have any odd experiences?”

“Besides Peter Hale possessing me?” She said sarcastically.

“Yes.” Ari said. “I want to see if your powers manifested before or after.”

“Can you narrow the field a little,” Stiles asked, “This has been weird central as of late.”

“It would likely be death related. Voices or sounds that left you in a trance like state, lost time…”

“Finding my boyfriend’s victims all of the place?” She said.

“Yes. You found them?”

“Not all of them, but some and I have been drawn to the places that they died even if they were already discovered.” She shivered, “I was there at the auto shop, but it’s like I couldn’t move I couldn’t help Stiles. Once I could move again I called the police but I didn’t stay, I ran.”

“Better that you did.” Stiles said, “We were already suspicious that you might be part of it.”

“Right.” She looked at Ari, “So it was the bite then?”

“Seems so. At least it was a combination of both. Did you wail before you got there?”

“Wail?” Stiles asked, “You mean like downstairs?”

“Yes. The Banshee’s wail is a signal that announces death is coming.”

“Wait, first of all, no I don’t remember busting any eardrums before, after, or during any murders.” Lydia said. “Second, I am going to make that noise every time someone dies?”

“No, of course not. It will have to meet the conditions that powers relates to. We do not know what those conditions are though, so it can happen at any time.”

“And what? I risk everyone’s hearing every time?”

“I will get a hold of a charm that can fix that issue.” Ari smiled. “And you will not do more than annoy non-cursed humans.”

“That’s why Danny was okay.” Stiles said.

“But Allison was not.” Lydia added. “She told me what you told her family about Hunters.”

“Exactly.” Ari nodded. “In terms of why you didn’t wail to herald the Kanima deaths, either they did not meet your conditions or you did not have you full powers yet and the ritual is what triggered them.”

“So my big supernatural power is watching people die?” Lydia frowned, “That seems…”

“Like a rip off.” Stiles finished.

“As you mature you will gain more control over your powers including the wail which can be used as a weapon in time.”

“And all this stuff just magically becomes easy to control and—“

“No. I will contact the closest Bog and find  you a mentor.”

“Bog?”

“That would be the clan-circle of Cailleach.”

“I thought I was a Banshee.”

“They are of the same type but Banshee, being half-human, typically learn from their mothers. Your presence feels diluted though. As if the connection was weak which means there may not have been another triggered Banshee in your family for generations. It would explain why I was unable to identify what you were at first.”

“So my mother isn’t one?”

“She is, technically. It would take ten thousand years for the connection to bleed out completely but unless she is deathtouched as you were she would never have come into her powers. That means she would be of little help to you in your training.”

“But a—what did you call it?--Cailleach could?”

“What is a Cailleach?” Stiles asked. “And do they actually live in bogs or is that just what they call it?”

“It depends on the Bog, some do live in bogs and marshes while others live in Fae communities. Cailleach translates to Hag if that helps. Specifically, they stem from those that live in Wales. Banshee stem from a different kind, the bean sidhe of Scotland.  As for if they could teach you to use your powers, yes, you are an intelligent girl, Lydia. I have no doubt that what you can’t learn from them you can learn on your own.”

“Why can’t I learn from a different Banshee?”

Ari sighed, “If I can find one that is willing to take you in to train I will, Lydia. The issue is that you are an anomaly. For a Banshee to be able to not only tolerate but embrace others is strange. For you to have attached yourself to a pack, to have mated to anyone, honestly even before you came into your powers you would have been an anomaly, Banshee are very secretive creatures and are not known for their ability to live in a social community. That you are as much of a social butterfly is intriguing.”

“Banshee don’t normally have boy—ah, mates?” Stiles asked.

“No, they are normally asexual and aromantic, and beyond that apathetic toward others, they are often completely unable to form attachment beyond their kin. They couple with humans for procreation only and will typically pull away from the father of their child quickly after conception.”

“Well, that explains my mother’s utter lack of interest in dating.” Lydia said.

Ari nodded. “That is natural for a Banshee. She likely married to--”

“Spite my Grandmother.”

“What?”

“My mom got pregnant and when my father proposed she said yes because my grandmother told her not to marry him.” Lydia explained.

“Interesting.” Ari said. “We will have to speak more about your family once things have calmed down.”

Lydia nodded and hesitated, “If my mother is latent will she lose her Fate as well?”

Ari looked surprised at the question, “I don’t know. Little is really known about Latent hybrids. Fae like Banshee are extremely rare. Most Fae don’t mate with humans.”

“Dola do.” Stiles said. “Our moms are—were-- human, right?”

“Yes. Even then there are many Dola Clans that do not or cannot breed with humans. The Stilinski’s can but even with us it was rare to have more than two children with humans until a few generations ago, even now, three seems to be the limit.” He explained, “Dola that mate with other Dola or occasionally other Fae have had many children, I think that the record is twenty-two.”

“Twenty-two?!”

“Yes, and if I remember correctly each of those went on to have at least five of their own. This was hundreds of years ago, though, and if I remember correctly the line was lost fairly quickly due to complications from inbreeding.”

“Gross.” Stiles whined. “What kind of complications?”

What?

He couldn't help it.

Morbid curiosity.

Ari raised an eyebrow at him, judging him. “Seriously?”

“Yes. Like are we talking squibs or like extra limbs?”

“Oh my God.” Lydia hissed. “What is wrong with you?”

“What?” “Both.” He and Ari said simultaneously.

“Are you done with me yet? I do not want to be here for any of the rest of this conversation.” She glared at them.

“For now.” Ari chuckled at her. “You can return to your mate now. He’s at the bottom of the stairs waiting for you.”

“How do you know that?”

“I have stronger hearing than you two, I can hear him hissing.”

Lydia looked like she wanted to ask another question but shook her head and refrained. She nodded to them and left the room heading downstairs. “Ugh. Jackson, stop that, I’m fine.” Stiles heard faintly before Ari closed the Guest room door.

“So,” He started, “inbreeding causes mutations in fae too?”

“Worse than in humans. There is a lot more that can potentially go wrong with a Fae, particularly a Dola.” Ari said.

“That’s true, I guess.” Stiles said. “What did you need me for?”

“A few things, I need an extra set of eyes on these books. I know of a couple of situations already. The Sanguine issues I mentioned earlier for instance and I want to see if I can find information on any history of it occurring. It will go faster with two people than one.”

Stiles nodded happily. He had been wanting to get his hands on Ari’s collection since the whole werewolf thing started.

Ari smiled knowingly, “Feel free to mark anything of interest to the pack as well. You have free reign over the books in the grey trunk but ask permission before you touch the red trunk.”

“Why?”

“The books inside can be dangerous if improperly handled. A few are even cursed, better safe than sorry given that we still don’t know what kind of Fae you are. Oh, and for any books in either trunk, ask me before you allow one of the others to touch it. There are a few even in the Grey trunk that would react badly to being handled by a Cursed Breed.”

“Absolutely.” Stiles promised, and that was one promise he wasn’t even going to contemplate breaking. The last thing any of them needed was someone blowing up because they touched the wrong book. Though, it would be helpful to know which were which in case he needed help in the future.

Ari could apparently read his mind. “I will teach you my cataloging system when we have more time, then you will be able to figure out what is okay to touch and what should be avoided.”

“Thanks.” Stiles grinned and settled down beside the grey trunk. He caught the key that Ari threw him and popped it open, grabbing a couple books off the top and scanning the titles, Leaves and dust: A comprehensive guide to the properties of nature and Feast and Famine: The History of Sanguine Hostilities. He set aside the first and flipped open the second, scanning the chapter index.

“So, Sanguine have had a lot of issues in the past then?” He asked, not looking up from the book as he paged through to the section on the Fates intercession. It made sense to begin with the issue at hand.

“Hm?” Ari moved closer and glanced at the title of the book. “Ah, yes. Mostly with their food sources. Of course, they are not the only kind of Fae that consume humans, in part or whole, but they are the only ones who tend to naturally attach themselves to their prey. Donors are not a recent development though their longevity was greatly increased with the Fates intercession.”

“So, it’s kind of like Dracula? They need food but want wives?”

“Yes and no, not all donor relationships are like that of Wladyslaw and Matthew. Many have a more platonic bond to their donor. Admittedly, more and more mating bonds have been stemming from donor bonds. Many Fae were uncomfortable with the idea of human donors and there were several vicious fights over the issue before the Fates came in to the picture.”

“Because of the hypnosis thing? Humans are supposed to have free will and all that.”

Ari laughed, “No, nothing so gallant as that, the Sanguine refused many orders to eliminate their prey. The Fae did not like the Humans having any knowledge of the Fae and were after the Sanguine to kill their prey rather than keep them around. That is the way of most Fae that require humans for a food source.”

Stiles stiffened. “Wait, they wanted the Sanguine to kill humans? The humans didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Was I ever that naïve?” Iggy asked walking into the room. “It’s cute that you think that the Fae had any regard for human life.  Before the Fates intercession Fae-kin treated Humans, at most, as a livestock food source and generally as a plague on the planet.”

“Ignacek.” Ari admonished. He turned to Stiles, “Things have changed, most Fae have stopped treating Humans—“

“You’re trying to get around lying.” Iggy laughed, “Trying to be nice. Trying not to scare him or his friends.” Iggy rolled his eyes, “Stiles, now isn’t the time to spare anyone’s feelings so I’m going to tell you the truth. The overwhelming majority of Fae-kin believe that Humans, all kinds, are less than scum. The fact is, Fae barely tolerate each other, never mind humans. The Fates are the ones that have kept the balance and with them losing control…” He trailed off unable to meet Stiles eyes anymore.

Ari sighed, “He has enough to worry about, we know nothing—“

“I spoke to him and, more importantly, to the king. Apparently I caught him in a meeting.”

“With the Faery king?” Ari looked worried.

“Over a hundred Faery have been put into holding in the Enclave since seven this morning, the same is happening across the world at every Enclave. Faery are losing control and lashing out.” He rubbed his hand over his face roughly, “The King lost his Fate not even an hour ago.”

“So they understand what is happening.” Ari said.

“They do. The King has called in all of the military commanders in charge of the Enclaves, they are preparing to lock them down.”

“What?!” Ari stared at his brother. “Without speaking to the other kings first?”

“He won’t risk Faery getting loose. He has, however, dispatched the other Faery Dola to investigate what is happening.”

“Have you spoken to any of them?”

“No. Not yet, I just received a text from Aromine though I am going to meet her and some of the others in the Wastelands. That is what I came to tell you.”

“Wait, you are going alone?” Stiles asked. “Where are the Wastelands?”

“Yes, I can only carry myself, Stiles. They are located in Russia. Hannan is going to open a portal for me in fifteen minutes. I can fly the rest of the way.”

Ari nodded sharply. “Go then. But you report to me.”

“You can’t seriously be letting him go off on his own!” Stiles balked. “You guys keep talking like this is an extremely dangerous situation and yet you are letting Iggy go off alone?”

“Stiles!” Ari snapped. “We need information, soon. Things are escalating more quickly than I had foreseen. Ignacek, go.”

Iggy nodded and left the room. Stiles heard the front door open and shut behind him a moment later. He stared at the door blankly.

“Read. We need information as fast as we can get it, Grzegorz.” Ari said quietly picking up his own book.

Stiles nodded and turned back to the book in his hands. He couldn’t focus on the page though and ended staring at it for several minutes his mind racing with conflicting thoughts.

Ari sighed. “Are you even trying?”

Before Stiles could respond the front door slammed open downstairs and his father shouted. “Rajmund!”

Ari jerked and stood dropping his book carelessly on the floor and running down the stairs. Stiles dropped his own book and followed. By the time got downstairs Ari was helping his father to the sofa in the living room.

“God Damnit!” Stiles’ dad shouted as his arm hit the arm rest lightly. “Fucking Hell!”

“Dad! Are you okay?!” Stiles asked running to his side and muffling a shout as he caught sight of the twisted, shredded remains of his father’s arm. “Oh my god!”

He panicked.


End file.
